Balmy about Hanami

Hey all. Hanami is the name for the parties you have underneath the cherry blossoms. Last weekend was the time to have a Hanami party, (they only stay blossomed for about a week) so we did.

I went to one on Friday, but lay low, as I had to work early on Saturday. On Saturday I let my hair down and we went two stations north to where the blossoms were near a river.

On Sunday, I went to a thing at the international centre about Egypt. It was quite interesting. From the building I could see that there was a festival going on down the street, so I went and checked it out. Quite interesting.

I eventually got back to the apartment later than I should, in order to clean up and do dishes. Not too much longer after that our friends from Nagoya came and I met them at the station. I then met up with another guy who had seen this website, when he looked up Yokkaichi. So I was showing everyone the sites of Yokkaichi, but not doing a great job of it, in between conversations and phone calls.

The party was a relative sucess. Enough people came to satisfy me. I was a little disappointed that more random people didn`t come, as that the point of the party, but it was all good.

Monday, I decided I was going to make it to the mountain. I did, after having lunch, getting some cash out, and since I was near - checking my emails - the which always becomes a time vacuum. I finally made it to the mountain by 4pm. Which was a waste of time as everything shutdown at 5. To solidify things, it was pouring with rain - which I had ignored in the pursuit of my goal. So I decided not to bother with the gondola ride, and just settle with a trip to an onsen (hot spa) and fight the mountain another day. As it was, the snow has melted already.

Lucky for me the people at the gondola place were nice to me, and gave me a ride back to an onsen near the station - which saved me a lot of time, and also some money too. So I was happy.

That night I cooked some food, and then had a visit from a friend. We decided to watch "Alexander" (as in Alexander the Great).

Since then, its just been work, and attempting to provide "fun" lessons to my students.

This weekend no great plans.

I better go, as I have spent a long time here - Im not going to even tell you what time it is now - I came to this internet cafe to put up my photos - and subsequently have taken forever - checking emails and other mucking around. But this website is my hobby I guess, so its worth it. Nice half day tomorrow.