Today feels like April

May in Sapporo. Good enough to pull out the bikes, but
we're still wearing winter coats.

Today feels like April. That is quite a statement, for a few reasons. The main one being the seasonal confusion that I've mentioned before (see here and here). For the first 27 years of my life April was autumn. A delightful season in Queensland – cooling down after the long, hot summer. Then we moved to the northern hemisphere, and it was supposed to be the opposite season. April is a month I notice perhaps more than other months because it is my birth month. I still remember my first birthday in Sapporo (northern Japan). It was freezing, there was still plenty of snow around, a lot of dirty, slushy snow, and it was altogether pretty miserable. Not my idea of spring at all.

April in Tokyo. We'll see tulips soon, my
favourite "Japanese" flower.

Tokyo is better than that, although with the cool March we've had I was beginning to wonder how long spring would delay its entrance. Today I've been riding all over the neighbourhood stocking up our fridge and pantry again after our absence last week. It's really lovely outside. I think the temperature is about 14 or 15, the sun is shining, there is not much breeze, and I was able to shrug off my thick winter coat for my thinner trench coat.

It is truly the opposite of where I grew up. April – the pleasant month when winter loosens its grip on us and we can relax in the growing warmth. But what is especially pleasant is that it feels right. It feels like April, it's only taken me 12 years to adjust! I think I missed this feeling last year when we were all still in shock regarding the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear power plant disaster. But I've got it this year. Oh, and what a perfect month to be born in – great in Queensland, wonderful in Tokyo. Yay!