fuchsia fragments

Take 2 days annual leave and get 10 days in a row off? Um... no brainer, I am so in!

And so begins the (almost) 60+ tour with my mum, dad and aunty. And it was fun - at times frustrating as we missed a lot of trains and buses by seconds and the trip was always opinionated but still great to have visitors. It didn't mean I was a jolly tour guide the whole time but I managed and I think the trip and itinerary was great! Lots of walking...

First stop: Kanazawa! It's kid of a semi-sleepy city. Not much to see if you don't like fresh food and seafood markets. There's a castle and a garden. Mid-range department stores. The highlight was taking a day trip by bus to Shirakawago... amazing farmhouses in the valley of two mountains. Cold weather as expected but so well preserved and got to try famous Hida milk and beef. Yum!

Then it was down to Osaka, our base for the next 5 days. Some new, some visited before. The shopping street was absolutely packed out and then some so it was just a short walk through. Tried these amazing Portugese tarts from Andy's Dontonburi. Got some local takoyaki and subway hopped a few places like the castle, Namba and Shin-Osaka. Day trips to Kyoto (so tourist these days), Himeji and Kobe. Hotel was a huge let down... never again!

Then was Hakone and Kawaguchiko. Awesome luck that we saw Mt Fuji and the cable car was operating. Totes bad luck it rained the evening we got to Kawaguchiko and had to walk to the hotel. Gotemba outlets were so-so (expensive) but the views there were amazing. The pink moss festival can be missed. The onsen hotel in Gora was a-m-a-z-i-n-g but expensive.

And by the time we got back to Tokyo, I was glad I had an extra day to rest cause it was tiring!

Hanami parties or picnics (literally to mean: 'flower viewing') is a really big thing here. Like, seriously mega where companies will send out their most junior employee sometime in the morning to go and reserve an area for evening festivities which involves eating and drinking under the Sakura Trees (essentially, the employee will wait by their reserved area for anything between 3 and 8 hours!). As the weather is only just warming up, it usually can still be very cold in the outdoors but this does not deter people from having these parties. They take them very seriously and with lots of enthusiasm. Likely, they are such a big things because it gives employees and friends an open space to relax and enjoy each other's company, it allows them to drink and with so many people's homes in such small confined spaces, the only other option is to be able to have these parties in parks or other such designated areas.

I was so happy to have organised one for work people and with almost a 100% attendance rate. We had lunch under the cherry trees by the Imperial Palace and we were lucky enough to get a spot to sit for an hour or so and just enjoy it. The weather wasn't the best - it was cloudy and it was a little bit cold but luckily, there was no rain! We had a nice time and it was great just to get together as a group since it doesn't happen so often (people love to keep to themselves here).

On the weekend, I visited Shinjuku Gardens and it was a pretty cold and gloomy day. Despite this, it seemed half of Tokyo was out to enjoy hanami!!! It was so crazy inside the garden even with an admission fee and no alcohol! Hats off to all the people who were there sitting in the cold (absolutely no sun!) and cool breeze and socialising. I had a short walk around, took a few photos and decided I was better off going home!