I hope everyone had a happy Easter. I hear Nova Scotia got a nice fresh coating of snow to celebrate the holiday. I talked to my family this morning just after 7am (it was Sunday night for them, and they had just finished a nice lamb dinner), but after numerous frustrating tries, failed to get a visual of them with Mum’s new web cam. They could see me, though, so I waved a lot. It was the whole family: my parents, Sally and Chris with Joey-chan, Tina and her boyfriend Gavin, my grandmother Doreen, my aunt Shirley and our family friend Andree. Joey gurgled, cooed and cried for me, and I heard from everybody. It was nice. Then I turned off the computer and went back to sleep for three hours.

I needed the rest because I experienced my first hanami (cherry blossom viewing) party on Sunday night. I’ve mentioned this uniquely Japanese phenomenon before: the Japanese put their love of food and drink together with their reverence for the beauty of the cherry blossom to have a sociable, drunken picnic amid scenes of spectacular natural beauty. I had to work at AEON from 12 till 5, so as soon as I finished I slipped out of my suit (will I never stop thinking of it as a costume? Probably not.) into jeans and a sweater and lit out on my bicycle for the castle. I got there quickly and paused to take a picture of the castle walls high overhead, with the beautiful white and pink blossoms spilling over the walls. Clusters of petals dotted the water of the moat. I looked for turtles, and saw five basking on the rocks in the setting sun. They are quite large, with a shell circumference close to the size of a dinner plate. The turtles woke up about two or three weeks ago, and for most of that time have doubtless been considering going back to sleep until the weather improved, but this weekend was beautiful. Climbing up the uneven stone steps to the castle, I stopped to do a double take at a young woman in insanely high leopard-print stilettos tottering down the stairs clinging for dear life to her boyfriend’s arm. I have nothing against leopard-print stilettos, especially in Japan, but not for picnics or the precarious footing around the castle!

I found the gang on the second level of the castle, where the defensive keep used to be. Now it is an open, grassy area surrounded by cherry trees. I found my friends Seiji, Junko and Aki, Yukiko and Kei, Neil, Keith, Yuzo, and a couple of others I didn’t know. [Hey, and the first question one new guy asked me was my very favourite popular question in Japan: “How old are you?” It’s amazing how many people ask me that. I should ask it right back, since I’ve been told Japanese women feel pretty much the same way about revealing their age as Western women. And yet they always ask me] Many other people I knew had been there earlier and left. The remaining folk were all very cheery, as they had been eating and drinking since 2. I got some food (I had brought my own dinner, but some of Yukiko’s fantastic picnic lunch was left. It was delicious!) and grabbed a beer. I thought for a moment maybe the party was over; everyone was packing up garbage and folding the tarps. But instead we moved up to the hedged-in lawn on the top level, with a beautiful view of the castle. If you want to see my pictures and put faces to names, go to: http://www.dangerblenkhorn.spaces.live.com/. The light faded fast as the sun sank to the west, but the park was softly illuminated by lamps. There were others still celebrating as well, coming and going all around us. A university sports team had set up near us, and were raucously celebrating their future wins. They were silent long enough to greet their coach and listen with rapt attention to his rallying speech.

When the beer ran out and some of our party were running out of steam, the rest of us decided to go to karaoke. We dodged into Seiji’s bar, Kaya, first, to regroup, then headed over to San-San-Go, the local karaoke hotspot (conveniently close to AEON). With a room of our own, we sang for two and a half hours. I sang a lot! It was great! I learned some valuable lessons – for example, I can’t sing Simon and Garfunkle – and pleasantly surprised myself with some of the songs I sang ( although you can’t trust my opinion; I was a little drunk…). Keith, the head gardener from Matsue’s English garden, had a lovely, Willie Nelson-ish voice. Seiji can’t carry a tune, I’m sorry to say, but he makes up for this deficiency in volume.

Last week I gave Seiji one of my bicycles, since my predecessor Neal had left me three. He had brought it that night, so we walked across the bridge together. It was cool by that point, but still not so bad (except my right sleeve was soaked in beer). I was relieved that he didn’t hit on me again, since that would have been awkward. I said good-bye and got home by 1:30, delighted to hit my futon and sleep!

After a couple of weeks of weird, oscillating weather, it seems to be turning a little nicer. We had an afternoon of alternating sun, rain and hail the other day. This whole region is called the san-in, or “shadowed mountain”, region, and is famous for rain and cooler weather. Southeast of us is the san-yo, or “sunny mountain”, region incorporating Okayama and Kyoto; it’s much nicer there.

Matsue is celebrating its 400^th anniversary over the next four years (the time it took to build the castle), and the city kicked off celebrations on Saturday with a samurai parade from one of the shrines in the south of the city up to the castle. I missed it because of work, but the photos were spectacular!

I’ve been following some of my friends at home by reading their blogs. I read my sister Tina’s blog regularly, as well as my friend Natasha’s (she’s doing all sorts of cool stuff, she looks great, and she has a great job acting at Ship’s Co. this summer; way to go, Tasha!), and Nate’s, which unfortunately is stagnating now that he’s lost his Internet connection (by the way, Nate, I have also read The House With a Clock in its Walls, and I agree with you 100%; it’s a fantastic and genuinely terrifying children’s book). If others of you have blogs out there, please send me the address and I’ll check it out.

I haven’t made it to aikido in four weeks now, first because of illness and recently because I’ve been too busy at work. I miss it a lot, and hope I can slip out and get there this Saturday.

There was an election here on Sunday, and for the two weeks prior to it, the candidates endlessly circled the city in vans equipped with powerful loudspeakers to shrilly exhort the populace to vote for them. I saw the volunteers in orange jumpsuits, wearing white gloves to symbolize how clean their hands were (or so a student told me). I was glad to see no sign of the Fascist-looking right-wingers who gave me such a nasty surprise on the New Year’s holiday.

I’ve almost mastered eating soup with chopsticks now; it’s not as hard as it sounds. (Tip: you can pick up the bowl, and you’re allowed, even encouraged, to slurp). I eat with chopsticks most of the time, although I do have forks and knives in my kitchen. As you may have noticed from my previous entries, where I have lovingly described some of my meals, I am REALLY enjoying the food in Japan. A student brought me a treat of sakura-mochi (“cherry blossom sweet”) that has completely won me over to Japanese desserts. It is a thin, green crepe-like circle made from rice flour, smelling sweetly like a cherry blossom, wrapped in a cherry leaf and stuffed with sweet bean paste. Unbelievably good.

Work has had its ups and downs, as has my mood. “Hello time!” with prospective students is getting easier, but I haven’t given an interview yet and I’m afraid it’s because my colleagues don’t think I can do it. Not that I want to, but I hate to feel inadequate. And I have often felt inadequate this week, as new students are starting and I’m trying to make good, exciting, fun classes. Plus the Inner Critic has been a real bitch. On the positive side, Taeko, the new teacher, is a great joy to have around; I’m always happy to see her. Did I tell you she learned her nearly perfect English in the Czech Republic? Very cool.

I got my summer clothes from home on Friday. My summer dresses are hanging up, adding a splash of colour to my closet, although they still need ironing. And I got a package from Sam this week which included a lovely red summer dress, although I can’t gain an ounce if I want to wear it! It’s lovely. Thanks for the package, Sam, and the chocolate. And the Saturday comics.

I’m making a list, and checking it twice, of all the clothes I need to buy soon. Despite the arrival of sartorial reinforcements, I am sadly in need of summer work clothes. Plus, my suits are showing some signs of wear – a stuck zipper here, a loose thread or frayed collar there – and they need some backup. We won’t talk about the state of my beloved black pumps that have served me so well. They may need to retire soon. As far as I can think so far, I need:

1 pr. walking/biking shoes, 1 pr. work shoes, 2-4 blouses/work shirts, 2 light skirts, 1 pr. light slacks, work dress(?), blazer, light coat, rain shoes(?)

So, Hiroshima, here I come!

Tuesday update:

This morning Ryoko-san picked me up at 7:45 to go hand out flyers at Kita High School, the best school in the city. We were there a few weeks ago to hand out flyers when exam results were released. Today was the commencement ceremony for the new students. (How about that, folks? Starting school in April? And summer holidays are a lot shorter here as well!) So we waited on the hill for students and parents to wend their way past us. It was a gorgeous morning, and my mood was light as we handed out flyers under a sakura tree, its branches thick with snowy white blossoms. A stand of bamboo stood behind us, and the liquid trills of a lark could be heard above. I kept getting distracted, and whistling back at the birds, deliberately entertaining Kohei, the university student who was helping us. Ryoko was very pleased with our work, and said I did a great job. Oops! I don’t want to be too good, since I really, really hate pamphleteering. But on mornings like this, it’s not such a chore. I have to do it tomorrow morning as well, and then I think I’m off the hook for the rest of the month.

Talk to you all later.

Love,

Sarah