More cherry blossoms, Koi Nobori, and another new Kit Kat.

This week Kate and the children went with the Shionome sans to a private garden with a more than 200 year old weeping cherry tree in it. The tree was incredibly big and beautiful. The beginning of spring had some warm days, but recently it has been really cold, in fact it snowed again Friday night. The soil here is very dark and so about 10 in the morning the next day as we drove past some of the farms there was so much steam coming off of them from the sun heating the soil that it looked like there were a bunch of smoke makers lining the fields. I am ready for some warm weather... Anyway as a result of the cold the cherry blossoms are lasting longer than usual and there are still many in bloom.

Here you can see a picture of the tree and the children are in the photo. The give a bit of a size reference for the tree.

There was also a garden filled with a variety of plants and trees. The children played in the bamboo for a while. It looks like a forest, but more dense.

One of the children found this heart shaped bamboo stump. Colleen was really excited about it and told me first thing when I got home that evening.

Later in the week we visited another 200+ old cherry tree at a temple in Utsunomiya. I personally got to see this one and it was huge as well.

This picture shows the size of the trunk on this tree. It is amazing to think it has been in this spot for over 200 years.

At the temple was an interesting mix of old and new culture. This is a statue near the cherry tree with children climbing on a monk (maybe?). He is flanked on each side by miniature stone Pikachus. It's first time I have seen a stone Pokemon at a temple.

Also at the fountain was an interesting copper dragon water spout. I have really grown to like these, they can be found at many of the temple wash bins.

Kate also went to a park full of Sakura trees in the mountains with June san.

Looks like a good portion of the hill side is covered with the cherry trees.

After viewing the trees Kate and June went to a nice restaurant for lunch.

Now in Japan the Koi Nobori are flying all over the country side. This is in preparation for boys day (May 5th) I will have to make a point to get pictures of some of them around Tochigi. I really enjoy seeing them. I was originally planning to buy some before we returned home, but we have not found the really big ones anywhere. Even if we did I am sure they are very expensive.

This week while at the supa (super market) we stumbled on a new Kit Kat. The flavor is Kinako Ohagi. Kinako Ohagi is a Japanese sweet made with rice and a sweet bean coated with soybean powder. It tasted very much like a regular Kit Kat but strangely with a slight coffee after taste.

That's all for this post, have a great week.