yanagawa

yanagawa: a sleepy town with an uncanny number of shrines and a gorgeous canal, which during cherry blossom season, is just the thing you need to appreciate life all the more.

sakura <3

sakura blossom! how do I love thee?
my past month has been devoted to the enjoyment of cherry blossoms. only blooming for two to three weeks a year, they're a symbol of beauty's way of leaving without saying goodbye.












anna and I passed through a lovely park on our way to lunch.









































on the way from lunch with anna to the hanami party at ohori park (below), I stumbled upon a shrine with a lovely sakura tree.














we weren't the only people interested in the cherry blossoms at ohori koen















I was actually on time, while my comrades were not, so I took some (more) photos of my beloved blossoms















my charlie brown sakura tree. notice the plethora of fully-formed, fully-bloomed trees just over the road.















cotton candy and everything! what an event!
















a smorgasbord of japanese and western snacks alike. and don't forget the 3-dollar wine aptly named "mirage"--with a price that low, it must be my imagination!













post-hanami. it was freezingggg.
haruka was still hungry.

identity crisis

an email i sent to my coworker:

Hola! Como estas?
Esta fin de semana pasada estuvo muy divertido y relajante.

友達のきっぷは大丈夫。

Thank you for telling me about Kumi! See you tomorrow!
Katie



three languages (mind you, i have basic knowledge of all three)... no wonder i can't decide what to do with my life!!!!

here comes the sun!

Wed 3/18

75° 51°

punchline: nobody wins

one sunday night, after a lovely thai meal, we four ladies thought long and hard about where the night would continue. the only thing that could cure our urge for competition was a fierce game of pool. we played four games, of which none were actually won. only lost. damn that eight ball!

then nadine and I got our asses handed to us in foosball.

not just semantics

sometimes i go on thesaurus.com to try to learn new words. i don't know how long this function has been around, but today i discovered the "visual thesaurus"--the latest assault on the fluidity of language. i searched "love" because it was flexible enough to expose this semantic nightmare:

p.s.--in researching nadine and my future trip to thailand/cambodia, i've discovered the best website title i've seen in agggeeeessssss

http://www.angkorwhat.net/

leão = love

forget three little words. two words have me swooning.

"matte leão"

portuguese for "who knew tea could be so good?"

tokyo

t

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k



y


o

jazz casual

will someone buy me this?

it's expensive.

also, it's out of print.

my birthday's coming up!! (5 months)

meterology

i don't care about my numbers. this blog functions as both an electronic journal and means of mass emailing without making people feel like they don't deserve individual emails.

but i got sitemeter anyway. why, you ask?

because of the world map function.

africa, south america and australia need a boost. please send links to all friends in these areas. thank you.

why calling my family is a real treat

i spoke to 3 of 4 family members today on the phone, and while it's expensive, it's always worth hearing the big news. the formula is usually one brother update, one zoe (the family dog) update and one new animal in the yard. today's conversation did not disappoint:

• tom painted his room burgundy
• 2 ducks are living in our pool
• zoe got a haircut

even though they're crazy, they're my family and i love them--a lot.

tokyo teaser

many many more to come...