April

It doesn't seem like it's been that long since I've updated the blog, but gosh, almost a month has slipped past. April has been nothing if not eventful. As I alluded to in my last post, the cherry blossoms hit full stride this month:





Robert and I went for a day hike in the woods to the West of Tokyo with a friend of mine from work and his daughter. This waterfall, and the scenic valley surrounding it were the highlights of the trip. We stopped here for lunch and Robert spent almost the entire time throwing rocks into the creek. He could hardly sit still long enough to take 2 bites of his sandwitch; I ended up saving it and feeding it to him on the way home.



Robert did exceptionally well on the hike. My colleague started out the day by ribbing me because I didn't have a toddler backpack, but he quieted down after 45 minutes of hiking w/ his daughter on his back while Robert spent most of his time running ahead of us on the trail and whacking each of the trees along the trail with a stick he'd picked up. In fact, Robert walked almost the whole way up the hill we were climbing, and really only asked to be be carried for a while on the way back down.

Now as you may know, flowering cherry trees are native to Japan, and during our hike we came across several of the trees in their native form, "yama-zakura" or "mountain cherry" blooming near the trail:



Just as the blossoms were beginning to wane in Tokyo, Sarah's brother Seth and his wife Abigail arrived for a visit. We took the opportunity to play tourist, and stayed at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese hot-spring hotel) in Hakone where the cherries were still in full force:



We also went to Kamakura and caught a parade down the town's main street. There were a number of marching bands; here was my favorite:



Robbie got into the act by pretending to play trumpet. I tried to explain to him that he should be pretending to play the trombone, but he just wouldn't listen. Kids! ;-)



Sarah, Seth, Abi, and Robbie also spent one day at Disney Sea while I worked. To protest the fact that I couldn't go, I am refusing to post any of the great pictures that Sarah took. I guess you'll have to look for them on Flickr.

At school this month, Robbie's class went to the Shirokanedai fire station:



Robert got to sit in the engine's driver seat. He had such a good time playing fireman that he did not want to get out of the engine when his turn was up -- there were tears.

And finally, last weekend we went down to Yokosuka to visit our friends Meredith, Eddie. The naval base has more of the look of a a college campus than a military complex; there are loads of cherry trees, abundant grass and flat open spaces, playgrounds, water parks, shopping, restaurants, and a deepwater port to boot! The aircraft carrier George Washington was in port, along with several destroyers, a cruiser, a couple of Japanese submarines:



and possibly the most inviting warning sign this side of "Wet Paint":



Must ... not ... touch ... pipe ... ... but is it actually hot right now? ... Nope. Whew.

And to close, Robert and I have been enjoying the pond in Himonya koen. Ducks, geese, turtles, and fish (not to mention a variety of insects) inhabit the pond; most of the time Robert is content to enjoy the scenery, but toward the end of our most recent trip, he wanted to try his hand at rowing:

Pictures

Here are some recent pictures from around the house and city. This is the only picture I managed to take of hanami up in Ueno -- the trees in this photo were only beginning to burst forth, but other trees were in more advanced states of bloom elsewhere in the park:



I finally reinstalled the software to pull pictures off of our phones, so here's a dump of some of our best phone photos. First stop, Ikea. In Japan, Ikea has carts for rolling your trays of food around, and glasses of wine to go with lunch!





Here's a picture of Robbie riding a pony at Himonya Koen:


$3 Strawberries... that's $3 each, $27 for the box:


A subway sign asking foreigners to refrain from annoying other passengers by talking on their mobile phones:


Mt Fuji as seen from my office window (it's that little white smudge on the horizon):


And to close, at some point Robert discovered that our couch and chair have removable cushions. Since then, at least once a day, they all get taken off of their respective pieces of furniture, thrown on the floor, and jumped on. He also discovered (with a bit of assistance) that cushions make excellent forts: