Well, it looks like I'll never finish up reporting on my Thailand trip... So moving on!
We just finished up Hanami, or Cherry Blossom Viewing, here in Himeji. Japan is covered with cherry trees, which all open up at the same time, blanketing the country in pink and white. This beauty is best appreciated by sitting under the trees eating and drinking for an afternoon or evening. After a few hours of socializing, everyone stops and takes a whole lot of pictures of the trees and friends.
This year I had several Hanami parties. The first was at Himeji castle. Every year on the first Saturday of April, a hundred
koto players set up in the park and play together starting at 9. In the afternoon, the
koto players are replaced with a string of
taiko drummers with groups rotating through for two hours. I slept in through the
koto to show up for the
taiko and
sake drinking- which was excellent. Among the foreigners, I have to believe that the sake is the top attraction to the festival. Every year, Himeji sets up a sake booth. The booth boasts six different sake's from local breweries. For 500 yen, you get a souvenir sake drinking box/cup with the first drink. Each additional drink is only 100yen. When I went for my first drink, I encountered some rather drunk Americans who recommended a rather spicy sake and another dry one. Each turned out to be excellent.
My second Hanami was out with the Aikido dojo. This was an extremely difficult day. We started out with class at 10 out in Aioi- a town outside of Himeji. After a good sweat we moved on to drinking at noon, and continued on until five. At which point we moved on to drinking at a local ramen shop. Monday was very painful.
My last Hanami in Japan I spent with my Shirasagi friends in front of the castle. I couldn't drink much, as I had karate shortly afterwards. But the flowers were beautiful and the park was relatively quiet.
