Hanami

During cherry blossom season, the whole country of Japan participates in hanami. Hanami is a cherry blossom viewing party. You spread out a tarp under the best cherry tree, eat and drink to your heart's content. The rowdier parties also include karaoke and I'm pretty sure we saw a game of strip poker. It takes place at all hours- night, morning, you name it. Basically it's tailgating without the football.

This was the spread at our first hanami with some of Gen's work colleagues. There were little snacks like rice crackers and nuts, edamame, fried chicken, and sushi. I also tried a traditional Japanese sausage made of fish, eaten cold. It kind of tastes like a cold hot dog. You can also get food delivered to your hanami party. We had Pizza Hut. Several of the nearby restaurants also delivered. You just tell them where your tarp is and they bring the food right to you.

This is sake especially for cherry blossom season. It's slightly pink and unfiltered. It was really good. We had this party at the very beginning of the season, so it was still pretty cold and not many trees were in bloom. We all went for coffee afterwards to warm up.

My newest fashion observation: Japanese women love being pale. (I'm finally in style!) Now that it's warming up and you can actually see the sun, I've seen a proliferation of opera-length, fingerless gloves. Last weekend it was nearly 80 degrees and I saw one woman in a jacket, gloves, hat, carrying a parasol. It made me hot just to look at her.

Also, check out this link: http://http//www.julieinjapan.com/2009/03/japanese-garbage-day-blues.html This is another Julie's blog. I started following it when we found out we were moving to Tokyo and it gave me the idea to create this one. This post is about the crazy rules the Japanese have for garbage.