Last week I was in the US after a business trip and had a day to visit with family. Due to the international dateline, coming back to Japan you lose and entire day, so I had two days at work (and groggy ones at that) and then the weekend hit. What a weekend it was!

During the weekend the Cherry Blossoms around Tokyo are just starting to come into full bloom. They aren’t there yet, but it is really close. Usually, due to the timing of my twice-yearly business trips to America, I miss the Cherry Blossom season in Japan. This year though, due to the weather and trip timing, I’m here for the Cherry Blossoms! Hooray! The Japanese love the Cherry Blossoms. Something about the transience of time and impermanence of beauty, the passing of seasons. So people love to go out and sit in under the Cherry trees and watch the blossoms fall. Whatever your reasons, it is very pretty. So we decided to take Alan out to a nearby park, Eastern Shinagawa Seaside Park, a good ten minute walk from our house. The weather was very nice, a little bit chilly but comfortable in a t-shirt and hoodie.

The park was playing host to a Cherry Blossom festival, so there were lots of people around and nice little stands selling food, candy, and of course beer. You can’t have a proper Cherry Blossom viewing party without alcohol, and you can’t have a proper festival without beer. That means a Cherry Blossom festival definitely has beer on the menu.

We wandered around a bit, found ourselves a spot under a tree, and had some nice food. Overpriced for what it is – in our case some fried chicken, yakisoba, and grilled clams, but super good. The clams were so good we bought a bag of them to use in the next night’s dinner (kim-chi hot pot, which was delicious.)

It was Alan’s first trip to a park, and first time to see Cherry Blossoms. I’m not sure that he noticed, but we had a good time. I know that Alan likes taking trips in the baby carriage, so I think he enjoyed that at least. We had a really nice time at the park, and I’m really glad I had a chance to see the Cherry Blossoms with the family. I know Alan won’t remember this, but we got a few pictures and at some point we’ll be able to line up pictures of Cherry Blossom parties every year. Maybe.

On Sunday we had a plan to visit some friends in Saitama. We decided to drive. It has been ages since I’ve been to Saitama (perhaps only once?) so it was a bit of an adventure. It was also Lisa and Alan’s first time! The trip took about an hour (I drove on the way there – on the way back it was about 40 minutes, but I wasn’t driving…) We stopped by our friend’s place, and visited for a while. Alan was sleeping almost the entire time. The purpose of the visit was interesting; my friend’s younger brother is in grad school for biology, and has to give a talk (in English!) at a conference coming up in two months. I’ve given talks before, so his sister thought I could help out with the translation. The talk itself wasn’t ready, but I did get a chance to listen to his research work, give some pointers on research presentations, and learn a bit about high fat diets and mouse pregnancy. Pretty cool actually!

After a delicious homemade lunch, we went out of a walk to the nearby Hikawa Shrine. It was a nice walk away, maybe twenty minutes or so. Alan was a good kid on the way there, and we walked around the temple for a bit before heading back. On the way back Alan started to cry because it was about time for his milk, but we weren’t prepared to walk and feed him at the same time, so it had to wait until he got back to the car. Alan’s actually had a cold or something so his voice sounds funny, and just sounds so painful for him. I hope he gets better soon. He isn’t crying or anything because of it, but when he does he sounds like a confused chicken.

So, in two days we had two firsts for Alan: first Cherry Blossom viewing, and first Shrine visit (along with a trip to Saitama to visit some friends!) It was a great, but busy weekend. I was really happy with how it turned out, even though I think both Lisa and I are tired from all the prep work it takes to travel with little Alan. Still, lots of fun!

Happy Cherry Blossom viewing to all of you!