Last Sakura season for us

Ahh March, my favorite month of the year!!  Namely because it's my birthday month, but also because March means spring sports!!  Back when I was in high school, it meant track.  None of our kids participate in track, but they do baseball and soccer so that makes us happy!  This is Lilly's final season of high school soccer.  I do hope she continues to play as long as she can though.  She is such a fun player to watch.  Lucy too!  Nothing gives me more pleasure than to watch her take the ball away from a charging offensive player.  Baseball is a bit different  for me. I know very little about the rules and nuances of the game.   Ben not only made the Varsity team, but he also is the starting third baseman.  This is a new position for him and he is taking the new position in stride.  Most days he comes home happy, but it is a totally different skill set from his previous experience at 1st base.  Who knew!?  

    

        

Isn't it just our luck, now that we are a few months out from moving we are finally getting some visitors!  Back-to-back Sundays, Jim and I took the train downtown to meet up with some friends from home. The first was a USNA classmate in town for business and the second was a favorite member of "Harrier Nation" and his youngest son who flew over for some spring break fun!  I would gladly take the train downtown every Sunday until we leave if it means we could get a few more people to visit!    

    

Another reason March is our favorite is the Cherry Blossoms.  Of course until I lived in DC and now Japan, I had no idea just how spectacular the Cherry Blossom/Sakura season was.  Trust me, I now understand.  The pictures below were taken just a few days apart over on the east side of Yokota air base, where we live.  The peak of the blooming wasn't supposed to happened until the very end of March but this year it was early.  Not complaining.  We usually miss the blooms here because we generally try to travel for spring break.

                

Speaking of spring break, this year being our last, we thought we would attempt to hit up Bali or Singapore, but with Jim's work schedule, that wasn't possible.  Instead we decided to continue our explorations of Japan.  We headed up to the Sea of Japan and checked out Kanazawa in the Ishikawa Prefecture.  It is known for its Edo-era districts, art museums and the Kenrokuen Garden, one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan.  The garden encompasses nearly 25 acres and has one of Japan's oldest fountains.

        

       

        

After we toured the garden and surrounding area, the kids thought it would be cool to enjoy another "famous" Kanazawa novelty - Gold leaf ice cream!  Almost all (99%) of all gold leaf produced in Japan comes from this area, so while other places sell gold leaf ice cream (Kinpaku) the gold all comes from here.  Sooo what better place to have some!

We also had Lucy's boyfriend with us for this trip.  He was a Godsend!  Not only does he get along with all the kids, he also speaks Japanese which is a skill that none of the rest of us has.  I hope he didn't feel like this was a working trip, but we did rely on him to help us navigate around and he was like a tour guide.  His language skills also came in handy when we got pulled over for speeding!  Broken speedometer apparently.  The kids were also interviewed by a local news station.  Since the county is still opening up to tourists, the news crews were particularly interested in our group.  Once they figured out that we had been living in Japan for several years, they weren't as interested in our story!  Sorry guys!

      

 

The next leg of our trip required a short thirty minute Shinkansen (bullet train) ride over to Toyama.  The train traveled over 250 kph, it was awesome! 

    

        

  

    

We also visited some of our Japanese friends while in the Kanazawa/Toyama area on the Sea of Japan.  She recommended we check out the Toyama Glass Art Museum.  We confessed we didn't really do much homework on this area, so we were kind of in the dark as to what to expect.  Boy did this place NOT disappoint!  The Museum was designed by acclaimed architect Kengo Kuma and the interior is spectacular!  The museum exhibits glass artworks from around the globe.  The exhibit of Dale Chihuly's was particularly interesting since we have seen some of his work displayed in several other venues including the lobby of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas!

        

We finally linked up with our friend at her family's sake brewery, Masuizumi.  We were given a tour and then had tea with her parents and she hosted us for a fabulous traditional Japanese dinner! One of the best birthday dinners I have ever had!    

    

The next morning, we were up and on the road, this time driving to Shirakawa-go to check out the traditional village known for its building style know as gassho-zukuri.  Some of the farmhouses are over 250 years old and are designed to have large attics spaces where the cultivation of silkworms happened.  This area is one of the MANY UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in Japan.  The kids originally were on the fence on whether to stop, but after we arrived, they immediately took off to explore the area and were reluctant to get back in the car to head to our next destination of Takayama.

            

    

Jim and I visited this area last year with friends and had planned to return with the kids to witness either the annual autumn or spring festivals but of course, our schedules didn't allow for that.  Nonetheless, we thought the kids really needed to check it out and since we were technically in the "neighborhood" we decided it was a no-brainer.  We got there just after lunch and the kids had quite a while to walk around and get familiar with the Sanmachi Suji historic district which are lined with wooden merchants’ houses dating to the Edo Period.  

        

The next morning, we got them up and out the door early so they could enjoy the morning market along the river before taking them up to the museum that houses several of the ornate floats that are a part of the spring and autumn festival which date back to the 1600's.  

            

Sarubobo is an amulet that is closely associated with Takayama and are similar to the Daruma doll that we have become obsessed with.  Most are red, but they can be other colors.  

    

We made it back to Tokyo for the last few days of spring break.  The sakura are still looking gorgeous so we decided to bring the girls downtown to the Meguro River area which a famous spot to view the sakura.  This had the added benefit to see them illuminated!  Ben decided he wasn't on board for this trip so we left him at home.

     

   

    

I would be remiss not to mention my birthday.  While we technically celebrated it earlier on our trip, we didn't do the whole cake and presents portion since we were traveling.  Lilly made a delicious carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for me this year!  YUM!!  All the presents were thoughtful and I am so thankful that I got to experience yet another birthday in Japan.

    

    

On the last day of the month, I convinced Lilly we need to search out a place to take some senior photos with the sakura.  We drove over to temple that I had noticed last year had beautiful trees and played around for about an hour.  I won't share all of them with you here, but we did get some good ones. I am not going to comment on just how quickly the senior year has flown by (but it really has).  I know she is ready for college, I am just not sure if we are ready to let her go!

    

    

Since this is our last Sakura season in Japan, I got a little creative with all the pink blossoms covering our streets.  The kids told me I needed to lay off the Pinterest/Instagram viewing for a bit.  I don't care - I love it!