After verifying that it was not just due to plain 'windyness' from the schnitzel I had for lunch that caused me to move on my chair, I realized that I was experiencing the first quake I have felt in Tokyo so far. Several of my classmates already felt a quake once or twice (it can be very local), but I somehow kept 'missing' it. Although the news has even reported about it today, my life didn't exactly flash before my eyes; my table just moved a bit for a second and it was over (luckily). It was a 5 on the richter scale but in Tokyo it was a 2 since the epic center was somewhere else.
The theme this week was still sakura, as this week was 満開 'mankai', full bloom of sakura. This week was again filled with sakura experiences but I promise this is the last time I'll write about this crazy Japanese season.
This weekend, especially Saturday, I spent the whole day running around in Tokyo trying to catch as much sakura as possible, since in the future the weather might become cold and windy (a period called 花冷え、hanabie lit. flowers getting cold). Futhermore, during weekdays there is not much time due to the traineeship.
And thus, I raced through the city on Saturday, and first went to Ueno where the whole of Japan plus a hell of a lot of Chinese tourists seemed to have gathered with the same purpose. However, this is expected when going to popular Ueno and it actually contributed to the atmosphere. So, I walked along the crowds and enjoyed both the myriad food stalls and cherry blossom at the same time.
After a while, Vivian accompanied me and we went to our next stop: Sumida river, a famous spot for flower watching. Now on the riverside, things were a bit more relaxed than Ueno. At Sumida, there was more room for people to sit down on their blue tarpaulins and enjoy the flowers while having a beer. I refrained from doing this myself as I was more interested in seeing as much sakura-places in Tokyo to really get an idea of what is really going on during this season, and because my team at Canon promised to hold a hanami, a promise that has not been fulfilled yet and I wonder if they forgot.
After Sumida, Alexandra joined us and we headed out to a different part of the city, Yasukuni. At this controversial shrine, the atmosphere was absolutely amazing, with tables filled with people, food and beer under sakura trees as far as the eye could see, with music and dance and that late afternoon at Yasukuni now definitely belongs to the top 10 most 'gezellig' scenes that I have seen in the world so far.
Already nearing sakura-overdose, we crossed the street to find more sakura on the west side of the imperial palace, where a massive queue of at least a few kilometers existed. Even the Japanese where impressed. And if Japanese are impressed with the length of a queue, this must mean something. I asked why they were queuing and the answer was simple. Because the trees will light up. Ok, exciting as that seemed, we decided not to stand in queue for several hours in order to see those trees light up. Maybe some other year.
Afterwards we headed out to Roppongi to go to an evening festival, but due to misinformation it had already ended before we got there. So, we finally ended up in a pub for a beer or two with Stephan and Jojanneke, who where in the neighborhood, and called it a day.
