Nabe and Hanami

Michael and I have been a bit lazy since returning from the Philippines, so not much has been going on the past couple of weeks. Last weekend, we drove around Utsunomiya and went to two parks. The first had a nice barbeque area which will be fun once the weather gets nicer and when we buy a grill. The second one was called Ikashira Park (いかしら公園). This park was huge and had a bike trail, a big pond with lots of koi fish, and a water park. Last Friday, we went to a nabe party with Michael’s co-workers. We went to Tsuruta-san’s house in Sakura and he had a very nice home. Nabe is a big clay pot of soup/stew. Anything can go in nabe and the pots are put on portable stoves in the middle of the table and you get whatever you want to eat from the pot. We all went grocery shopping together to buy the ingredients, it is very interesting to see 4 men grocery shopping. We ended up with lots of mushrooms, green onions, fish, meat and beer. It was a nice chance to get to know some of Michael’s co-workers, we all brought pictures to share. On Saturday, we went to Ueno Park for Hanami (お花見). Hanami is cherry blossoming viewing. This is very popular in Japan because once the cherry blossoms bloom, they only last about 2 weeks. Basically, we go to the park and lay out a huge tarp and have a small party under the cherry blossom trees. Ueno Park was the most popular spot, so that’s where we opted to go. We went with some of the other OAPs and it was fun. There was lots of drinking involved and we were told that sometimes people will stay all day and night to party. People made cardboard tables, had portable stoves, grills, lots of beer, and games. We had quite the entertaining group next to us. Check out the pictures and enjoy!