Guest Post – Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo

Dated – April, 2014

Realized that this blog has not been updated ever since I moved to US. Last eight months have been a blur. Moving to a new place has its own learning curve. Learning to live without a big network of friends, learning to drive, learning to see your family through Skype. The list is long. As usual, time and distance have been the greatest teachers. More on that on the other blog.  Finishing up the long pending Tokyo post. This one is a guest post from S. 🙂 S has a fairly severe case of ADD. So, she zones out at an alarming rate. Took her a lot of willpower (and time) to write this one. So, here goes.

Chasing Cherry Blossoms in Japan – Fujisan

Dated – March, 2014

Golden rule. Must not start a new trip without writing about the old one. It has been over three months and we have not been anywhere! Very rare for us. But with some major changes coming up, it has been kinda hard to plan anything. We put our foot down at the fourth month though. 🙂 So, July has a good trek lined up. Treks are more up C’s alley, so she is counting days while I am hoping we don’t have to camp in snow. Anyway. I thought I should finish the Japan posts before we start packing our backpacks.

Chasing Cherry Blossoms in Japan – Hiroshima

Hiroshima shook me up. The peace memorial museum has this big picture of a pocket watch which shows the time of the bomb drop and these words –

A dragonfly flitted in front of me
and stopped on a fence.
I stood up, took my cap in my hands,
and was about to catch the dragonfly
when…..

Chasing Cherry Blossoms in Japan – Kyoto

After Osaka, we moved to Kyoto. It takes about thirty minutes by train. This was the day we started using the JR Pass. We missed out on getting the pass stamped at the Kansai airport, so had to run around a bit for it. For ignoramus, the rail pass needs to be stamped before you start travel and that can be done only at select locations in Japan. So, we reached Kyoto in the afternoon sometime and checked in to the Khao San hostel, very close to the Gion area.

Chasing Cherry Blossoms in Japan – Osaka

Dated – April, 2014

Cherry Blossoms or Sakura season in Japan. Put it down on your list right away. Japan is a beautiful country in every season, but this one particular season is spectacular. Not just how pretty and pink everything is around this time, but there is an infectious happy vibe that catches on real quick.