Where do I start??

Ok, yes I know I am a slacker and it has been about 2 months since I last posted a real blog about what I have been doing in Japan. Now that life has come pretty much back to normal (especially since last week was soooo insane with the hostage situation and helicopters hoovering over my apartment for 48 hours straight) I'm not exactly sure where to start but I'll highlight the biggest occasions. How about with my fam coming to visit that seems like a good place to start. (Sorry I don't have any pictures of the Family's trip to Japan-I somehow lost them all so you'll have to ask the fam if you want to see :(

THE FAM
The visit from the fam was very nice. Only thing was, it was not just the parents but the bro and sis too. Let me just say traveling with 4 other adults in a foreign country where everyone thinks they know what they are doing and do not have the patience to listen to the one person who has a inkling about what is going on can get very frustrating. But we made it through without any deaths or injuries :) With the JR Pass in hand they were off traveling the country while I was stuck working and traveled further and wider then I have in the 9 months I've here. We went to Kyoto for 2 days and saw the Imperial Palace, Nijo Palace (with the mockingbird floors-awesome), Kinkajuji Temple (Golden Palace) and Gion-the Geisha district (we saw real live geisha in Gion-ahhh). I have to say Kyoto is my new favorite place in the world (I've been back since more on that later). Kyoto is absolutely amazing, beautiful and full of history and ancient buildings.
A little historical tidbit for y'all-Kyoto is the one city that was not bombed during WWII because of the historical significance. Many of the buildings are original buildings not replicas like you will see if you go to Osaka or Nagoya.
We also stayed near Mt. Fuji and had the most amazing view of the mountain from our 10th story hotel room. We were lucky enough to have two very clear days (although on the way up we went through a massive snow storm for about 10 minutes -very strange). And it was very nice for once to hear English coming out of a TV-we had CNN. I know all you want to know about the British soldiers who were being held in Iran.
They came at the best time in Japan: Sakura or Cherry Blossom season. They were absolutely amazing and beautiful.
I was very sad to see them head back, but such is life, so with a impromptu Easter brunch I sent them off to Fujigaoka to catch the bus to the airport.

SAKURA
Sakura season is when all the cherry blossoms in Japan are in bloom. It is an absolutely amazing whimsical magical time to be in Japan. The scenery of Japan is dotted with pink wherever you go. (Once again I have lost all my pics :( The Japanese love to have picnics under the sakura trees and drink sake. They call these picnics Hanami's, and wherever you go during this time of year you will see people sitting under Sakura trees on blue tarps eating bento lunches and drinking sake.

Gamagori Shell Picking and Koto Lesson

It is very popular in Japan for people to flock to the sea during Spring to shell pick on the beach. Naomi, Lizzie, Megumi (and her 2 year old son Takato) and I were luck enough to have Saori the shell picking queen set us up on a shell picking date in Gamagori. So one Sunday morning we set out to Gamagori with our shell picking clothes on to pick us some shells on the beach (try to say that 10 times fast). It was actually quite fun. We each had a bucket and a shovel and we just found a place on the beach and dug for hours to fill our buckets.

Gamagori beach filled with shell pickers

After our exhausting day of picking shells, sorting shells and washing shells (yes, we did get to take them home to cook them-and no I didn't eat any of them:) Saori's lovely mommy had a wonderful surprise for us. She had arranged with a friend of hers to teach us how to play the Koto, a Japanese musical instrument at her lesson studio-an absolutely amazing 100 year old traditional Japanese house.

The Koto is a gorgeous instrument that is very long with 14 strings and has an amazing sound.

Me, trying to play the famous Japanese song "Sakura" on the Koto-surprisingly those 5 years of violin helped

Anyways there is a miniature update to what has been going on in Japan. I will write another massive blog about my Golden Week trip to Kyoto, Osaka and Nara another night. And I promise I won't wait so long to blog again. It is exhausting trying to put in 3 months into one blog :)

P.S. I will post some pics from a Hanami we had in Okazaki soon-thanks to Char's massive photo collection