Zach
The beginning of April was fantastic! Sakura season again. Parks around the city feature beautiful rows of flower blossoming trees. People are outside having parties under the trees eating snacks! While we didn’t have an opportunity for a full out picnic during the sakura, Libby was able to enjoy some snacks with her friends visiting, and we made a trip to the local park in season. There happened to be a spell of cold weather and rain however, so it didn’t make for a great picnic experience this year.
Around the same time, we took a trip to Kanazawa with a couple of my friends to a bath hotel that had been famous with the Royal Family of Japan in the past. Kanazawa itself is gorgeous area; the town is seated along a river and surrounded by mountains and the sea, making for gorgeous views. The bath house was really nice and fancy. Weirdly, however, the kaiseki dinner we had there involved an open buffet bar in addition to the prepared courses. It also turned into a breakfast buffet in the morning too, which we all giggly took full advantage of, stuffing ourselves on eggs, bacon, breads, the whole deal.
The only problem with that trip was just how exhausted tired we were. You see, I made a critical mistake in our initial travel plans; I had decided to make use of an overnight bus service from Tokyo to Kanazawa. The idea is that you pay a fairly small fee, and they take you by bus in the evening, and you wake up early in the morning at your destination. Not only is it cheaper, but you arrive early and save travel time. The problem is that I greatly underestimated how difficult sleeping on said bus was going to be. It didn’t help that we were situated in the back, right over the back wheels and near the engine. Making matters worse, I had assumed the bus had restrooms, which it did not. This almost became tragic when shortly after getting on the bus, I realized that I needed to pee. Uhhh…. too late! We were off. Fortunately, a couple of hours later, the bus did stop for a break in any case. Still, lesson learned.
Oh yeah! My birthday! Libby got me Mario Kart, and made some home made Pho as per my request. Check the pics.
I suppose there’s only one last thing to mention. We’re house hunting! That’s all for me now. We’ll catch up with May in our next post.
Libby
Oh boy! The beginning of Spring was super fun! Last year we weren’t able to enjoy all the cherry blossom related activities due to being homeless and waiting for jobs to start but this time we got to enjoy the season. My friend Hilary and her husband Sugar came over and I played tour guide. At first they were in Tokyo for their first days, when there weren’t many flowers open, and then off to Kyoto. The tricky thing about cherry blossom season is that it only lasts for about 10 days and you can only predict it by last year’s forecast (which could be wrong!). They didn’t get to see the cherry blossoms in Kyoto, which is the one of the most popular places to see them, but once they came back we just had so so many cherry blossoms in our faces, so many, to the point Sugar was sighing of boredom heheh.
We went to Shinjuku National Garden for a dessert hanami party (cherry blossom viewing party, there is always eating and drinking involved, of course.) of Amao strawberries and coffee jelly. We also ventured to Rikugien Park for matcha ice cream, and rescued a senior citizen’s lost wallet, and Koishikawa Park, where we heard J-pop from the Tokyo Dome next door. We went to a lot of neighborhoods I myself have never gone to and they got to help me spot some nice stamps for my stamp book. Our last spot on the cherry blossom chase was in Yoyogi Park, where we ended up having another ghetto hanami party, with jagabata (steamed potato with butter, our favorite trashy festival food!), yakisoba (fried noodle), tuna sashimi, matcha castella cake, and warabi mochis. For the last day and Hilary’s birthday, the four of us all went to an izakaya and had some yakitori, random snacks, and beer. I didn’t win the money fight, but everybody had a lot of fun. This whole adventure was full of so much snacking and matcha things!
Oh yeah! We also got harassed by some Mormon missionaries while we were in line for boba milk tea. I saw their name tags and knew danger was approaching. They had their ipads for who knows what and they were already starting to bother some non-English speakers in line. Then they spotted the three of us and opened with small talk. They asked, “Where are you from?”. We stood there for a bit and didn’t answer for a long time, until Sugar said “San Francisco”. They also asked about places we’ve been, but we were pretty reluctant to keep talking with them or share the nice places we’ve been. But it was a smart move on their part to get people while they’re lining up for milk tea. “Clever girls…” *Gets eaten by Jesus*.
In addition to waiting in perilous milk tea lines, I was also really happy to have Hilary to shop with! It was mostly me chiding her to buy things, “It’s so cute, you should buy it!” or “You should get it! You’ll be popularrrr :DDD.” But a buy for her was like a buy for me, especially since we have no room in our apartment for so many things we would love to buy. She did get me back and I ended up buying a Donald Duck tote bag which I like a lot :3 (I also maybe bought some face masks. And maybe a new purse :D). I think I also learned a lot about myself while Hilary and Sugar were here. Hilary is a bold person, and she’d be like “Let’s eat ice cream at this place that is going to close in 5 minutes!” or “Let’s jaywalk!” or “I’m gonna try this skirt right here!” and I’d be like “Na-na-na-na no! NoOoOOoOO, that’s against the rules!!!” I guess I just like the procedure-full processes of Japan, and rules and order in general *tents fingers*.
As for our trip to Kanazawa, I really liked the town a lot. There were canals around the city, some with even gold fish! We visited the samurai district which had a lot of old style buildings and houses and best of all, mochi treats!! We also hung out in the castle park and garden for a bit, which does not exactly have a castle fort even though it’s called Kanazawa Castle. We also explored the fish market for a bit, and they had really fresh and cheap sashimi. The bath house we chose at Wakura Onsen was very nice and the baths faced the ocean. You could even creep on people walking on the pier as you bathed! We got to open Zach’s new Switch and play some wizarding duels and rotation battles. The buffet dinner and breakfasts were exciting and it was hard not to go back into American mode of eating haha. Overall it was a fun trip and I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to explore Kanazawa some more.
Zach and I also managed to go to the Penis Festival in Kawasaki. You may or may not have seen it mentioned on Youtube or on TV. It was only okay. It felt more like a fraternity party than a regular festival. Not enough fried foods. A lot of penis popsicles though.
We’re going back to the future eventually. Right? RIGHT?! To be continued…
Party Around The Kotatsu 
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