a few reasons why April makes me happy...

Tulips = springtime to me, which is one of the primary reasons that I loved Cornell in late April. I thought it would be a huge disappointment when the sakura were done blooming, but the weather has been absolutely amazing this week and the tulips are popping up everywhere. Who can complain?



April also means the start of a new academic year in Japan. Fortunately, the first week or so of school is dominated by ceremonies, school assemblies and a lot of extra time for me to wander the hallways and hang out with my students. Sometimes my wandering leads me into classrooms at just the right moment to catch them doing something really random... like in this picture (I don't know whose pants that student is in, but they are definitely not his own). Other times it just means I get to stand in the hall and giggle with a group of girls as they pose for a million different pictures. I especially like to roam the hallways during the cleaning period, when the students are as hard at work as these three boys below (who are obviously cleaning the teachers' room)...

Early spring is also strawberry season in Japan... which makes no sense to me because I associate strawberries with June and early summer. But I've quickly gotten over my strawberry-related ethnocentrism and have taken them on as my guilty pleasure (guilty because they're about $4 for less than a pint). It helps that they're delicious.

Finally, April means that my next mini-travel adventure is just around the corner. Taking advantage of the best travel holiday in Japan ("Golden Week," where the "golden" is representitive of both their value as free vacation days and the amount of money that you have to spend to enjoy them) to spend 12 days in China. The plan is to go through Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai... however, the first week in May is also one of China's largest national holidays. So flexibility and patience will definitely be the key elements to moving around with the other billion people (literally) on holiday in China. Lots of pictures to come!

Happy Spring!!

Sakura!

Sakura (cherry blossom) season is a well choreographed moment of mass hysteria in Japan. Every spring, teams of meterologists predict when the trees will bloom in various regions throughout the country so that people can plan their spring vacations accordingly. Huge groups of people assemble themselves under the trees to eat, drink and gaze at the sakura in the tradition of hanami (which roughly translates to a 'flower viewing party'). Practically everything you see has a sakura theme -- even KitKat releases a sakura 'flavored' candy each spring.

The sakura last for little more than a week, then fall in a beautiful "blizzard" of petals. Their blooming period is seen as a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life and has been celebrated everywhere from kimono and tea cups to the sides of kamikaze airplanes.

Here are some more pictures from my first sakura season in Japan...

we went by the Arc Hills development in Roppongi/Asakasa on April 1st to eat delicious crepes at the local sakura festival and look at the trees that line the streets

when I came back to Kiryu, the trees next to City Hall were almost in full bloom... the sky was perfectly blue, so I joined a dozen other people to wander around and take pictures