Back in Mito and "O" Hanami

After a three week vacation, I'm finally back in Mito. This is the first time I've been back to my apartment since the Earthquake, Lucky for me, the Cherry Blossoms were still in season.

Cherry blossoms line all the water in Mito

I didn't get to relax long before I went back to work, but Thursday I was lucky to spend a beautiful day in Kairaku-en with the cherry blossom trees and my gaijin friends. The Japanese literally call it O Hanami, or literally, "flower watching". Before well respected or revered words, the Japanese put an O to show respect for the historical significance of the item, such as O Gohan (rice), O Sake (delicious sake), or O Hashi (chopsticks). Hanami follows the same rules, where the Japanese sit together in nature and contemplate the beauty of Spring. Foreigners, however, traditionally use Hanami to take advantage of the great weather and lack of public drunkenness laws to get wasted.

Joel at Senba Lake

Our camping spot

The Shiba dog Tora, meaning Tiger

The Cherry Blossoms are beautiful, but the weather in Japan during this time of year is some of the best I've ever encountered. It's warm with a cool breeze, and not a cloud in the sky no matter what day of the week it is. As I rode my bicycle along the lakeside, lined with Sakura trees, a gust of wind would blow hundreds of tiny flower petals into the air and I was able to ride through them like they were snow. The sights and smells were amazing; It's hard to believe that this city was wrecked only a month before.

We finished the evening at a Korean Barbecue place. These places, called Yakiniku, have hot grills in the middle of the table where you can grill all sorts of raw meat and vegetables, and offer an all-you-can-eat Tabehodai for about 20 dollars. We would have combined it with all-you-can-drink, but the restaurant informed us that nobody in town was offering it, in reverence to the earthquake victims.

My Japanese friend, Yasu, laughed when I made the mount Fuji out of an onion like hibachi chefs at Shoguns do back home. He said that he's never seen that done before; who would have thought?