Day 51-52, May 3-4 (Fri-Sat)

On Friday, Kaori and I made sandwiches and walked to Nishiyama Koen. We met up with Hugh and Mako and ate lunch while observing the tsutsuji (azalea) blooming all over the park. 

Close up:

Look at all the pretty colors:

Ani, you're going to have to explain this one to me:

It’s a holiday and the Tsutsuji Matsuri so there were tons of people and stalls. 

Kingyou-sukui (goldfish scooping)

We walked around for a bit, visited the zoo,

(say hallo to my friend)

got our glasses cleaned for free, then parted ways to go home. Home passing by all the stalls, hehehehe.

I tried ringo-ame (candied apple), which is basically an apple covered in hard candy. Not that great, but look how pretty it is!

We also got a little bag of fried castella to split : )

Then, also on our way home kind of, we passed by what looked like a tea ceremony. We were trying to figure out what it was, if we could join, if there was a fee, when one of the women sitting on the benches waiting came over to us and asked if we wanted a ticket. She had an extra, and she gave it to us. Wow! How nice. Lucky :)

The ceremony wasn’t that interesting, but it was in a nice little area overlooking a koi pond and the scenic maples.

Later that evening, I hosted movie night at my place. No one else had volunteered so I did.

We watched the first episode of Firefly, all the 90min through the 45 minutes (‘is the first one 45 min or an hour and a half?’ I’d asked. ’45 min’ they said); Maisson Ikkoku episode 1, so Mako could actually understand what was going on (and, surprisingly, I understood 90% of the Japanese); then we watched Fight Club, and at this point it was nearing midnight and I was nursing my 3rd pot of tea so I didn’t really care, though I still don’t like it.

Then, because because nothing, I read my email and stuff before going to sleep. I still woke up at 7am.

On the bright side, this bright, early start allowed me to write some of this post, do my laundry, do the dishes, answer emails, put up actions, etc. before Kaori came over.

After a walk in the nice mostly-sunny day, we set off to buy soil for our plants and seek out the Brazilian store for cooking ingredients. We made a Columbian soup for lunch and gathered energy to run to Nishiyama Koen. We made it all the way there! (about 20 min.) Walked around for a bit then ran back. It was pretty tiring. So we ate more soup.

Here are my plants, chamomile and thyme.