So eventually the sun set, and it got dark, and the lanterns all came on. I used it as a great oppourtunity to take photos of people under the pretty lanterns. We looked pretty red, but I liked that they were still clear. And it was so nice, as some of them will be leaving soon too!
I got a really cool photo of Kurt while he was hanging out in a tree. With the sun behind him, it looked like he had become part of the trees shilloutte, and I spent a lot of time trying to get the photo. I went and had a go, and made James take a photo of me in the same pose! Not quite as cool, but pretty fun!
We did find a few trees that hadn't dropped all their petals, which made them still pretty! I wandered around with my camera for a bit...not terribly long, as I got sidetracked with watching people play dodgeball and then ultimate frisbee! It's a shame there weren't more sakura, but it was still pretty and a beautiful fun sunny day!
On Saturday, after an awesome 3 hours of Karaoke on Friday night, Brad drove us down to Shimonoseki. I love road trips with him. The sun was shining, we put the music up loud and rolled the windows down. We were meeting people for Hanami, even though all the sakura was all on the floor and dying. None the less, it was so nice to see everyone, and have dinner and snack and just chat to old friends!
On Thursday, I rushed to Hiroshima after work to meet Jorge for a baseball game, where the Hanshin Tigers were playing the Hiroshima Carps. Baseball is such a big deal in Japan, so I was so excited to go! We had a great time, I got myself a shirt, we ate fried chicken, and cheered and had so much fun. It was possibly one of the greatest post-work ideas ever. And as much as I was tired, it was so worth it, because there was lots of cheering, and balloons, and cool baseball mascots too!
The Buddah inside the building is so huge...and you just seem so small next to it. We actually visited on Buddah's birthday, which meant lots of people lined up in order to pray. It was also, coincidentally Easter Sunday! The building had to be built to encompass Buddah, but there are also two huge cold statues on either side...I'm not quite sure what they represent, but they were very pretty! The building itself is so impressive, with huge pillars, and there were lots of little kids lined up to try and pass through the nose hole! I think I was a little big for it now, and it made me so sad to not be able to try again!
Last time, we didn't go into Toidaiji temple, we just went up to the gate. This time, I paid to go in, and I was so glad I did. When I lived here when I was younger, I used to be able to climb through this hole which was the same size as Buddah's nostil, and so I needed to go back just to have those memories. The temple is home to the largest Buddah in Japan, and the building it is housed in is the world's largest wooden building. Pretty cool eh? The origional building actually burned down, and they rebuilt it at 2/3 of the origional size. It must have been even more impressive before!
