Three things for Monday

Today the guys went back to school after a week off. I went back to work after a week off. Wow, I'm finding it hard to get my brain into gear. I hope the David and the boys are doing better than me.

As I have a lot to do that's built up in my "absence", I will do a short post again today. Three things!

1. Reading aloud. 
We finished the book about Australian history and I decided we needed to up the pace a little. So we've started a fantasy series from the library that none of the boys have read, which is pretty amazing because our eldest is something of a speed reader and the library isn't large. I don't like fantasy, but I'm okay in reading it to my boys. I read The Hobbit to them when we toured around Hokkaido a few years ago.

This one turns out to be by an Australian author. It's certainly got us on the edge of our seats.

2. Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a laid-back day, but I did get them all out downtown at an all-you-can-eat pizza restaurant for lunch. We had a relaxed and enjoyable time out. Oh, and David surprised me with a cheesecake (from Costco) last night. Guess my age?

3. Ohanami (cherry blossom viewing)

This actually means, having a picnic under cherry blossoms. A very traditional thing to do in Japan. And as the trees only blossom for a week or so it can be challenging to organise. On Friday I went back to our old stomping ground (near where we first lived in Tokyo) to meet my language exchange partners for our picnic. It was a little chilly to be sitting on the ground on a plastic sheet (the norm in Japan, not wool rugs), I definitely didn't have enough layers on. That's another big challenge for this time of year: I perpetually seem to have either too many or too few clothes on.

There were many people there, despite it being a relatively unknown spot Cherry Blossom viewing site. Yes, it is in the grounds of a former leprosy sanitarium. This research centre is adjacent to where we picnicked.

It was a grey day, but they still were spectacular.