The best part of Hikone is the cute little samurai charachter cat which they have there, named Hikonyan. I didnt think we really would get to see him, but they had a special performance!
We arrived at just the right time, and got to see him! He came into the room and posed for photos, and played with a flower and a rice cracker. It was pretty adorable, and everyone was oohing and aahhing because he was so adorable!
We headed up to Hikone on Saturday to meet Sam. The rain was pretty terrible. So after getting rain ponchos, we got pretty wet walking to the castle. 
The castle wasnt very big, but the cherry blossoms were just beautiful. If the sun would have been shining, it would have been so beautiful there. There were lots of weeping type ones over the castle walls and along the river (or moat I should say) which surrounded the castle.
When mum visited, she said she had seen a cute shrine with Sakura trees from the bus. I never was able to find it, but thankfully, Calvin knew the one that she was talking about. It's very close to my use, but not somewhere I would walk past any given day. It has a little pond outside the main entrance, with lots of koi and a nice little bridge over it. 
I love traditional Japanese bridges, I think that they are both beautiful and useful! Compared to the Bristol suspension bridge, Its such a differing style! The main temple didn't have anything special inside, that we could tell, but there were nice stone lions guarding it. 
We didn't stay at the shrine long, but it was nice to finally get there, and there were a few Sakura trees over the car park. It really made me want to get out and about, and explore Hagi a bit more! Who knows where we might go n an adventure next week if the weather is good? 
I always want to get up into a Sakura tree and take my photo surrounded by all the flowers and I think it 
would be fun too. However, most trees are much too high, and I'm not really a tree climbing kind of girl. Thankfully, however, while we were walking among the Sakura trees which line the river in Hagi, we found one with a low trunk and lots of easy branches to climb!
I was pretty lucky on Monday. As I was heading home for lunch, I ran into all the other ALTs. They only work half days, and we're going to a great little Thai restaurant near my school. It was so yummy, and it's only open at lunchtime, so it was quite a treat! For some reason, Calvin wasn't with them, but he called me after school. 
We often run errands together, so. Did some errands and then he took me to a place he had read a book in the afternoon, this really cool place at the edge of town. I never would have gone there if he hasn't had a car. The Sakura were amazing there, and lined the river on both sides. It was really a beautiful sight, and they went on for ages and ages! 
I took lots of pictures, which was great because the sky was blue and the sun was shining. I think I am falling a bit more n love with cherry blossoms, especially the shape of the tree! They really are pretty where there are lots of them all together!
Osaka has lots of western food, you just have to know where to look for it! I really had a desire for American food, so we stopped at Baskin Robbins for an ice cream. Later on, we were walking through the streets when we came across an anti-foreigners rally. It was very very heavily policed, and they never shouted at us, but I felt really uncomfortable. After, we went and got a good pizza pretzel from Wetzels Pretzel, which are amazing! And have much more salt than Auntie Annie's!
Part of the reason that I was in such a rush with the Easter eggs was because we had to catch a train. On Sunday's, there are only a few buses to the train station every hour, but there are lots of trains! I took this nice photo of the Sakura near to Josh's local bus stop. I thought it looked really pretty! We were lucky that that weekends weather has ended up pretty lovely, despite rain being forecast. We headed into Osaka, and den-den town, the kinda anime, electronics district. I really wasn't enjoying it. Is nothing like Akihabara in Tokyo, so instead
we went to get some curry for Josh and when we arrived, the small restaurant was full. A couple at a booth ( which usually seats 4), were sitting across from each other as you do. When they saw us arrive, they told the server they would move over. They had one side of the booth and we had the other. Usually in Japan, people wouldn't give up seats like that, unless it was a place where it was common. This curry shop isn't often crowded, and it was such a nice gesture!
