Painting Easter eggs

On Sunday morning, I had this really good idea to paint Easter eggs. After all, it was Easter. But, I had bought watercolours, and they didn't stay so well. After funny attempts from Josh to stick on the googly eyes with superglue, drying the eggs with a hair dryer, I eventually made this cute little bunny with stick up ears! I thought it was pretty cute too! I made a chick one too, but it didn't dry so well! Josh was such a good sport about it, even though I was rushed, and I made a big mess of his kitchen. Next year, real American Easter egg dye kits....

Caramel Cheesecake with friends

I was so happy, because Josh managed to get a hold of our friends Sophie and Russ, and his friend Caitlyn, and we were all able to meet up in Nara to have dinner. Josh and I had a half hour to spare before meeting them, so we did a half an hour of karaoke ( never knew you could do that!). We ate at this lovely little cafe, where the quesadillas were to die for! Nice and spicy and not soupy! They had warned me to save room for dessert and Im glad I did! It was so yummy! I had a caramel cheesecake, but they came in all sorts of different flavours!

Our date in the park

I had such a nice time in the park, but then again, I always do. I especially love Nara in the spring, when everything is pretty and lovely. We had lunch at a don-don place, and then headed into the main area of the park near Todaiji. The park was really busy, full of lots of tourists and other foreigners also with the same idea as us. I could see why, it was a beautiful day. We were lucky enough to meet up with Julianne and her Mum, who was visiting from America. It was nice to see her, as I havent seen her in ages. Eventually, after feeding some deer, and admiring the sakura, we moved away from the main part of the park. It was an area where I had never been before, with a nice pond, and bridge and pavillion. We stopped there for a while, admiring the flowers and just talking, before wandering over to a huge expanse of grass. It seemed a lot like the Quarry park back in Shrewsbury! I really liked it, and it was surrounded by pretty sakura trees. One of my favourite trees was by the pond, and thankfully, there was a nice large rock right in front of it that I was able to use as a tripod. So, I ended up with this cute photo of me and Josh in our matching burgundy sweatshirts!

Sakura at my favourite Shrine

On Friday, I got out a little early and got to Josh about 2 hours earlier than usual. I was so happy about that! We celebrated by having date night and watching Tron. On Saturday, I slept really late, and then we headed into Nara Park before we were meeting out friends for dinner and Karaoke! It was so nice to see the sakura in full bloom here. I especially love the sakura against something, like a shrine or a specific background. But this torii gate, in Nara Park is one of my favourites, and I love how it looks with the sakura against it! I'm not quite sure what the sign on the gate said, or even the name of the shrine, but its very small and nice and popular, especially during sakura season.

Mikans and Sakura

After Hagi Castle, we tried going to another shrine, but even though we drove around for a long time, we couldnt find a way in. So, instead we went looking for some more trees in Hagi Old Town. I had seen some more Sakura trees near to my school so we went over to check those out too. Its a pretty weird place to plant sakura trees, behind the interenet power station, but nevertheless, they were really pretty! They were the weeping variety, which is pretty in a different way. And one of the trees was very pink! Next to the tree was another tree, a mikan tree. Hagi is really famous for oranges, specifically summer oranges. And they are huge!We took lots of silly photos with an orange we found, and the trees and the sakura! It was funny being silly! Thank goodness none of my students were around to see me eating the sakura instead of the orange!

Some pretty awesome photographs

I was feeling a little down after Mummy left, so Calvin came around on Monday, and we went to Hagi Castle to take some cool photos with the Sakura. He had just bought a new Kyudo (Japanese Archery) bow, and wanted some photos so we had a great time taking photos in the sun and in the sakura forest behind the castle. It was starting to get a little dark, so it wasnt as long as it could be, but the photos were so cool!

I miss books

books in Japan are expensive, even in Japanese. English books are extortionate, as are magazines. The Cosmo Josh buys, 12 dollars. But sometimes, I really miss books. I depend on ebooks and free books, but being away from England means not needing to stay up to date with the trends in magazines. We went to a bookstore, where they had English books...not just a few, but tons and tons. Wedding magazines and fiction books, and the best part of all, Physics books. I loved the university bookshop when I was there, and it brought so many memories back!