ohanami~!

First of all, I was accepted to Language House!! This is important news to me--after 2 years of not exactly living where I wanted to live, I will finally be able to stay where I've aspired to be since before coming to University of Maryland.  Here I can speak Japanese in a Japanese cluster of Americans and participate in interesting clubs (including co-managing garden club).  Hopefully my pejorative and treacherous perfectionist ego will let me forget my past mistakes and instead make this success all the sweeter. 

Long-term aspirations are the best.

Now that that's out of the way, today I enjoyed viewing the sakura, just as they are beginning to fall off the trees.  While yet, sakura mankai, or full bloom is optimal, certainly Ueno park is less crowded when the blossoms are beginning to scatter (which is, by the way, produces a really nice "snowing" effect)

 Some ojiisan had organized a cat-following.


They were "humanized" with treats.








 As a result, they could be easily picked up and placed on bicycle seats.

 Some Japanese girls were photographing them.

 "Kawaii~"

People like to spread out blue tarps and nosh.  I probably don't have to go to deeply into the concept of "hana yori dango," as it is universal.

 In spite of the sakura's ephemeral beauty, Japanese like to use hanami as an excuse to eat, drink sake and lounge around for the better part of a day.  I think there was even electricity available for karaoke in some cases, although I was not granted to opportunity to hear any.

 Full-out resting isn't exactly prohibited either.  These blue tarps seemed to be spread out courtesy of the park.  I also heard that the homeless take advantage of these tarps as campsites, which I was granted the opportunity to see.

This fellow is not actually homeless, however.

 A mysterious bag of food that was never claimed--relic of a homeless camp-out?


Other than that there were plenty of gaijin sakura-viewing aside from our party.  I almost forgot what typical Americans look like (not Japan-ified ones).

Afterwards friends and I ate at Friday's (high-priced, "luxury" American dairy-- hooray!) and I bought a replacement pen for my electronic dictionary, after wandering far past my destination initially.  But that wandering landed me in Akihabara, aka otaku central.  It was interesting to finally see maids in maid outfits, and shops lit up with bright characters from various anime I no longer recognize.  And how my past has passed.

In other news, earlier this week I met my new tutor who has already been abroad to 8 countries, namely English-speaking ones in Southeast Asia and will soon encounter his 9th.  This comes after spending roughly 4 news in Singapore during elementary school.  He seems like a nice, quiet and chill person who is majoring in English.  We will have good exchanges, I think.

Which reminds me...tomorrow I will begin my own tutoring as an American English teacher~!!
I'm a little nervous, and I probably have good reason to be, as I didn't come through for this family last semester and feel a little bad.  Hopefully everything will go smoothly.  I have no experience as an English teacher, but now is a good time to start.  I'm trying not to think in that direction in terms of future career options... but...

Anyways, I think that it will be a fun experience.

Tomorrow I head to PASONA O2, where plants are cultivated indoors!!
http://www.theblogbelow.com/2008/05/pasona-o2-underground-farming.html

Hoping my future is promisin' interesting things, in the long and short term! :)

Thank god it's

still Thursday.