Well, the mark of Spring finally happened in Japan, which is Cherry
blossoms.  I finally know why cherry blossoms are way more popular
than plum blossoms, because when cherry trees are in full bloom its
like a fantasy world.  Plus, april is the season when school starts in
Japan, so it goes from April to April.  So cherry blossoms are like a
symbol of spring, returning to school (I don't know blooming with
knowledge), and it is a time of drinking.  On my trainride home from
Kyoto, where I went to see cherry blossoms (a very very popular place
by the way), pretty much everyone was drunk and wound up.  What many
people do is have a Hanami, which is basically eat food and get drunk
under a cherry tree.  Many people stake out spots in famous places
early in the morning, and not so much anymore, but in the past
companies would make the newest employee find a spot for everyone and
wait all day, then the older employees would show up in the evening
for the party.  It's kind of like hazing.  So I actually didn't go to
a super famous spot at first so it was much less crowded, but it was
really beautiful.  This place was on the eastern side of Kyoto and on
the outskirts right against the mountains (the edge of city in Japan
is almost always on the edge of the mountains or the sea).  This place
was like a fantasy and I almost wanted to move their instantly.  Of
course I've gotten used to my dirty city life with convenience, but
this place had no apartments, just old Japanese houses and a river
running through cherry trees and other plants everywhere.  It was
spectacular.  So after this we went back to the main party district in
Kyoto and had dinner.  We went to a Soba restaurant and I got what I
assume is a Spring seasonal dish, it's called Yuba Soba.  It was of
course Soba noodles, with mochi (really sticky rice cake made from
pounding a special kind of rice), a piece of shrimp, cranberries, and
not tofu, but something like tofu, it's made from the leftovers of soy
milk.  And of course soy sauce to pour over it.  It was actually
really good.  It was sweet and salty for the most part, but it was
cold and pretty refreshing.  Then we went drinking.  During Cherry
blossom season, people get really drunk, so when we caught the train
home, everyone was visibly drunk, well not everyone, but it was pretty
close, so all in all it was pretty fun.  This week I went on a crazy
hike and bought a bass, I'll try to be less lazy and send an e-mail
with that soon.

Dan