Sakura season! (with a little added woe)

So for the entire year leading up to this point and prior, I have been looking forward to one time of year in particular - sakura time! Sakura are the cherry trees that are so famous here in Japan, and as a nation I don't think they could be prouder of anything else ("That is my son, yes, he's a lawyer, and LOOK at that sakura tree he planted, we now have THREE in our yard. Yes THREE!") I'm exaggerating obviously but seriously, they are a big deal. Even to the point of hanging up fake sakura branches until they blossom for real!

On Saturday, a group of us went first to Saihi park, which is about a half hour's drive outside of Sasebo (gotta love friends with cars), where there are reportedly 1,000 cherry trees planted. It was a bit windy, because the park is high up on a mountain, but it was really lovely weather. In the pic of me up top, you can see the bridge we crossed by foot to reach the park, which is apparently one of Sasebo's foremost suicide spots. Below is the ocean, but its a huge whirl-pool area, and I guess people still get around the barriers around the bridge. ...kinda morbid, sorry. Here's another picture of sakura, cheer up! :D

After Saihi park, we went back into Sasebo and went to Nimitz park, which is right close to the Navy base. To our surprise, the trees there were much prettier than those at Saihi, with fat bursts of blossoms on the branches! The petals of the flowers are apparently incredibly delicate, and they fall off very easily. Actually, "sakura" in Japanese doesn't refer to the cherry blossoms or trees, but its one word that describes the action of the petals falling from the trees. Its really beautiful, and always reminds me of snow. The Sasebo trees were fuller, I think, because it was less windy where they were, so less of the blossoms had fallen.

When we arrived at the park there was a small group of people already there, some Japanese, some Navy, enjoying the blossoms. There's a tradition in Japan called 'hanami', which mean 'blossom-viewing', and it often involves a blanket, friends, and a looot of booze. Apparently its not uncommon to see Japanese people on their hands and knees in the bushes after a rousing hanami, which is....less than dignified, but understood as being in the spirit of 'fun'. Eeeyah. We all went with our own blankets and food and drinks though, and hung out in the park until dark, where I finally snagged a decent night shot! Hurrah!

Claire and I ended up hanging out after the others had gone off to get some ramen, so we chilled on her blankets for a good couple of hours while the Navy people bbq'd close by. I'm not going to pretend that us quietly making fun of Americans is a GOOD way to spend our time...but it IS pretty fun.

After the hanami, we all headed out and wandered around Sasebo for a bit, hitting up an arcade (or in Jenny's case, the arcade hit up her NYUK NYUK), and when that closed, just hung out downtown. Overall, it was a good night!

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Now, for something completely different. I wrote the above section on Monday, when having little to do, I decided to get ahead and just do it, to post later. That night, however, I did the ultimately dumb act which many computer owners unfortunately carry out (hopefully just) once in their lives. I spilled a big, glorious glass of water all on my keyboard.

So currently, its in Chiba, a city close to Tokyo, with the Toshiba people, and I'm waiting to hear back on just how much its going to cost me to get it repaired. Thankfully my info was saved, but my screen is shot, so right now the over-the-phone estimate make it looks like I could shell out between 600 - 1000 bucks.

Wish me luck, I'll let ya know how it went on the flipside! I'm praying for a karmic save! I brake for school-children, doesn't that count for something?!