Sakura, Stamina: Summing up Spring!

Ok...so this post is a long time in coming.  Originally I wanted to write a post at the end of my spring vacation, but I got really busy and didn't have the time, so it's only coming now.  Better late than never, although now I have a lot more to talk about than I did at the time.  But that's good too!

Since the title of this post is partly about sakura, here's a preview of that to get us started:

Anyway, the last week of spring vacation were quite nice for me.  It involved lots of walking, and lives.  Actually at one of the lives I went to, when it was finished, I was talking with one of the female musicians and she was asking me if I was a musician, because apparently I had that kind of image.  What?! Why??  Sorry, just a normal person.  Somehow I felt happy though.  But actually, it's not the first time that a Japanese person has asked me that.  It's happened a few times before as well.  In fact, I was talking about that with my teacher one day, trying to figure out why exactly Japanese people say that to me, and she was like, "Hmmm....I kind of understand what they're saying.  I don't know why exactly, but there's just something about you..."  Not helpful at all.  Interesting, but not helpful.  But anyway, I took this picture just to prove that I in fact do look just like a normal person.  What is a musician supposed to look alike anyway, by the way??

The last Saturday of my vacation, I went to Pinot for another one of Yoshida Hiroki's lives, and it was great as always.  This time, since it has been a really long time since we took a picture together, we did that...

The following day, I met up with my Japanese teacher in Shukugawa, where we found Shukugawa's sakura festival (although at that time the sakura weren't actually quite in bloom yet -- there were a couple but most were still just buds)  We wandered around for a while, and eventually ended up at a music stage, where my friend was performing, so we listened to that for a while.  When that was finished, the two of us took a walk along the river, and came on an area where they were doing tea ceremony.  We decided to stop and try it!  It was really good, and we also got a really yummy yuzu flavored sweet as well to go with it!  After that, we did a bit more walking, and then she took me to Shukugawa's "famous bakery" where we picked up some yummy breads for snacks and went back to the river to enjoy them, talk and admire all the dogs that were out and about

 Also on this final day of my vacation, I hit a new personal record for distance walked in one day....But a couple people told me I should have walked another 7km or so, so that I could get to 42.1...or the distance of a full marathon.  Alright.  Challenge accepted!!

After that, it was back to work for a week of training and prep time.  Busy, busy!  Of course, I tried to make some time to go out for walks (especially because the weather was starting to get nice, and the sakura were starting to bloom).  Some days, it could only be during the evening, but there are some really nicely illuminated locations with lots of sakura trees as well.

 



BOAR!

Unfortunately, likely because of all of the hanami parties that were going on, the smell of food attracted the boars, and I saw them kind of frequently on my evening walks.

It also rained quite a bit at the beginning of the month, but even though I don't really like that, I still went out for walks to check out the sakura, it was just a little bit less pleasant for me.

Actually, there was one day, where I went to look out my window, and the mountain was gone!  It was completely obscured by the clouds.  Not cool.  And of course the humidity that day was 100%. Disgusting.  But it was the weekend, and it wasn't actually raining, so out I went...

 

 

I also started to go up the mountain, because I wanted to get a better/higher view of the sakura, but that was a ridiculous idea because it was so foggy, you couldn't see anything, so I came back down, and went for a street level walk instead.

But, while I was on the mountain, I did check out the waterfall...this is the strongest I've ever seen it flowing.  Probably because of all the rain, and melting water higher up the mountain.

Because I really wanted to walk (and see more sakura), I headed out toward Shukugawa.  It seemed like a nice enough day, other than the humidity.  But nope.  I was wrong.  Part way there, it started to, well, not rain, but more like mist.  I thought to myself that that would be fine, after all, it pretty much dried when it touched you...but after a while....I was soaked.  So I started to look for a convenience store where I could buy an umbrella.  But strangely, there were none! I had to walk for at least 15 minutes to find one (that's really rare in Japan...they're everywhere. Usually.).  By the time I found one, I was well and wet, and I had to wait at a crosswalk before getting there.  At that point there was another woman standing there, and she took one look at me, and then held her umbrella over me.  So kind! She also asked if I was going to the station, but I just told her thanks, but I was just going to that convenience store to get myself an umbrella!

Got it!

 After that it started raining more heavily, so good timing I guess.  At that point, I was almost where I wanted to be so, I kept going, and got to see more sakura.  There were a surprising amount of people out.  I though that because it was raining there wouldn't be so many, but they were out like normal, sitting on the ground, eating and drinking.  The only difference being that they were wearing ponchos and had umbrellas.

 

 

 

Also, Meriken park, in Kobe's Harborland was for the most part closed off for quite some time, because they were re-doing a lot of it, but they finally finished, and it's now accessible again.  Looks nice!

 

 

My students also had an entrance ceremony one Sunday morning, and when that was finished, myself and 3 other teachers had to go do some research for a field trip that we might go on.  That was positive and negative for me.  Positive because I got to do some things I hadn't done yet, but negative because it was a Sunday afternoon with beautiful weather and I had other things I kind of wanted to do.  That being said, it was nice, because we got to ride a boat, went up Port Tower and checked out Kawasaki World in the Marine Museum.  All places/things I haven't done in my time in Kobe.

Bye, Harborland!

There's a ship building area, and this is a submarine under construction

 

It was so bright!!

 

We were lucky and got to see a plane taking off from Kobe Airport

View from Kobe Port Tower

Looking down at the new and improved Meriken Park

 

In front of a Shinkansen in Kawaseki world

 

Later in the month, on April 22, I decided that that would be the day when I would complete the challenge I got to walk the distance of a full marathon.  It was a beautiful, warm sunny day, and couldn't have been nicer conditions for walking.  I started out by heading for Nishinomiya Gardens, because I actually wanted to check something there, and then after that, I went even further, and found a really big river, which I've seen from the train before, but had never been to before.  It was a really nice place, and although they were doing construction in places, there were a number of walking/cycling paths that you could take (at varying distances from the river).  I walked down that river until I got to around Mukogawa station, which is not far from where the river empties into the bay.  After that I headed back home.  And since I know some of you want to ask.  No.  Nothing really hurt afterwards.  I did end up with a couple of blisters, and after all the walking I've done, my shoes had holes and I had to get new ones.  But other than that, no problems.

Yep, I beat that 42.1 km thing...

So many different views and things to walk on along the way!

 

And no, the day after that, I didn't really take a break.  Well, I sort of did.  I only walked 21.6km.  Only. hehehe.  Anyway, one of the things I saw that day was the "Inflorata", which is a display/pictures created using flower petals and branches of pines?/cedars?.  Anyway, they were really pretty.  I also did spend some time sitting as well, as I went into Osaka for a street live that day too!

And that was pretty much the exciting events of my April.  Oh, just one more thing that was a little bit surprising, but a good thing nonetheless: