Hanemi

 Japan is beautiful at the moment - it's Hanemi season (Cherry Blossom).  There are thousands of cherry blossom trees throughout Tokyo, and the Japanese don't need much excuse for a party! Last Saturday we walked to the Naka-Meguro river near our apartment - the Sakura (blossom) was nearly out, but not quite - there were hundreds of people walking along the river, having parties, and eating from the many street stalls selling Yaki-tori (octopus balls) Yaki-Soba (noodles) crepes, Yaki-imo (baked sweet potatoes), and many other tasty (and not so tasty!) stuff.

This Saturday afternoon and evening were were invited to a Hanemi party in Shinigawa (about 30 mins from here) by a Swedish family we don't know very well, so on best behaviour to start with! But it was a lovely party, and their apartment was right by a park, so the kids stuffed themselves silly with Swedish sweets and chocolate cake, then played in the park with another family. they were all really kind and spoke largely in English to us!

This Sunday the Sakura has really peaked, in full bloom, and the weather's suddenly warmed up - really pleasant (around 20 degrees during the day, and 12 at night). So I decided to go for a run down the river - I kind of underestimated how popular the river would be - there were thousands of people, and a great atmosphere!

Anyway, the benefit was that I had to run down a parallel street and found a cool brik-a-brak shop, and right in the back found this old teak chair in the shape of a hand (kind of a Buddha's hand). Later on, Ross wanted to go and see the cherry blossom, so we took a detour past the junk shop (and had to buy said hand-chair!) Lots of fun bringing it back as it weighs a ton! Ross ended up having to leave Neve and I in a cafe with our chair and go and get teh car - most amusing watching people walk past our chair and some even sat on it (until Neve told them 'sumimasen (excuse me!)' and gave them the crossed hands sign! Then I walked back with the camera - hence the many hanemi pics! We are turning Japanese!

 You can see all the laterns adourning the sides of the river - sadly, due to the power outages, they're not being turned on in the evenings

 A typical Japanese photo!

 There were lots of v drunk people - these two were really knocking it back!

 Street sellers - I took this pic because the guy in the middle was cooking boiled squid soup, which looked disgusting, but you can't see the octopus as it's just gone beneath the surface of the soup!

 A Sake and Guiness stall! The guy kindly posed for me!

 Each shop / restaurant / bar puts its name on the laterns outside

 ...never far away from a skyscraper!

 These more pinky blossoms were further up the river

 This is on the way home - there's a little footpath with a really pretty stream and lots more hana (flowers)

 It's very pretty!

 These are outside our local greengrocers - the Japanese really love their flowers - the old lady who runs the greengrocers was really happy that I photographed her flowers!

 These were in the school opposite our street

 The block  you can see right at the endo of this passage is our apartment!

 This is the view from Ross and my room - it doesn't look so bright as normal becuase it was taken at 5:30pm

 This is the previous weekend - you can see that the blossom is not quite out (and this bit of the street is not so busy!)

 We went ot the park first

 Felix by the river!

 Felix's favourite type of Japanese 'fox' dog!

Felix buying a crepe from the 'Orange Submarine' VW van!

Here are my party buys again - not sure whether it's wine or Sake they're drinking here!