Long Awaited Update

I know I said I'd get to that Hanami update and then didn't do it, so here you go, finally. I went to hanami, which means flower viewing, in Kisuki, a nearby town, and one of the top 100 sites in Japan for doing so. Kisuki lies on the banks of the might Hiikawa river:





Sorry about that one being sideways. Those are just shots of a little footbridge across the river. Here's one of the famous line of trees seen from across the river:



It's far more impressive than my cellphone camera can display. So, what is flower viewing all about? Basically it is a chance for people to have picnics. Here's a picture of some people I don't know picnicking. I didn't get to have a picnic or anything, but I did at least get to eat some good soup stuff which is supposedly a very country-side dish.



Of course, this being a festival, there were tons of places selling festival food, which is basically all terrible for you, and a stage with dancing and music, only half of which is traditionally Japanese. There was even a jazz band that I have to say put ol' c-ville's to shame.





Again, sorry about the pictures. There was also a koto concert, which was nice. The koto is basically a strange looking Japanese harp. Pretty neat, anyway. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the cherry blossoms. They've all fallen off the trees now. There's something poetic in there but I'm not going to bother with it because it's so obvious.