Took the subway to Motoyama station, walked to Heiwa park. On the way, stopped at a 7-11 and bought some rice balls, yogurt, and bean balls (mochi on the outside, some kind of bean paste on the inside). It was a pretty long walk uphill to get to the park, and we were all pretty worn. Walked around for a bit and ate what we bought at the store under the cherry blossoms. The Japanese apparently call this "picknick under the cherry blossoms" by the name "hanami". There were a lot more people all around when we were there. We may go back to Haiwa Park some other time, just to compare it to a normal crowd.
Cherry blossoms!
Cherry blossoms some more!
Cherry blossoms again! I said "cherry blossoms" again!
After lunch we walked up onto a small hill covered in grave markers. As we crested the top, we discovered that the next valley was completely covered with graves. It turns out that Haiwa Park is mostly a big cemetery. Who knew?
Walked to the playground. While the girls played, I walked down to the lake. Walked back along a lovely path, with dark foliage and brilliant blossoms overhanging the worn stone cobbles.
The lake on the left, enclosed by concrete steps on three sides. The main attraction on the right.
By this time the girls were pretty tired... so we hiked the 45 minutes back to the subway and began the trip back. Got off at Sakae and checked out Oasis 21 and a few of the stores there. Bought some chinese food, and ate some more from the pack sitting in the little park east of the artificial... lake-on-stilts... thing.
After our second-lunch, we walked down to Matsuzakaya department store (largest in the world? I think?) and visited the Pokemon Center. So much Pokemon!
Walked back to the subway, took it home. Stopped by the little vegetable grocers on the way, got fresh foods. Anna made Japanese Curry.
A lovely day. Made it out and back all by ourselves.
Sunday we stayed home.
Here I am working on looking Japanese. The closest I've gotten is someone asking me if I've got Chinese ancestors. Oh well.
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