Mom visits Japan! Part 1

My blog has been quiet for a while because mom was visiting for about 2 weeks. She arrived on a Friday, and her luggage arrived on Sunday. Seems her bags wanted to spend a few days in Hawaii before arriving in Japan. Can’t blame them I guess. I told my adult students that she spent her first two days in Japan completely naked. I laughed, mom hit me, and they looked a little confused. It was funny.
Her timing couldn’t have been more perfect, not only was I on my spring vacation, but it is cherry blossom season! The cherry blossoms bloom for a very brief time, so catching them is quite difficult. We were lucky to view the cherry blossoms in Wakayama, Hiroshima, and Kyoto. Not all in full bloom quite yet, but just starting. They are amazingly beautiful.
I’ll start off this series with the Wakayama Castle. Mom really enjoyed visiting all the castles we saw in Japan, but since this is the closest castle to me, just down the street, we went a few times. The first time was after her luggage was delivered on Sunday. So with new clean underwear (mom’s going to kill me!! hee hee!!), we walked over to the castle. Many of the trees were still bare, but one bright pink weepy cherry blossom tree was in full bloom. I asked the only person around, a very old woman, to take our picture, and was surprised to see that she did a pretty good job. It took a little while, but she found the button, and with a bit of cropping, we have a nice picture.
Then after our trip to Hiroshima and Kyoto, mom and I returned to the Wakayama Castle to find all the trees in full bloom! Except for the first pink tree, the rest were white. They just filled the grounds like fluffy clouds sitting on top of the trees. A popular thing to do while the trees are in bloom is to have a picnic under them. It is called “Hanami” and so during the day and evening, people are camped out grilling, drinking, and chatting. Mom and I went on her last night to look at the trees lit up and have dinner. We enjoyed food from the booths, and tried to take pictures in the low light even though there was a full moon.
I am so happy that mom and I could share our first Hanami festival together.