Cherry Blossoms Part 1

Cherry blossom, or sakura, season is in full bloom here in Japan and we have done our very best to see as many as we possibly could!  I had always heard about the cherry blossoms here, but experiencing them has completely exceeded my expectations!  They're so beautiful, and they are only around for a short while--just a couple of weeks--that it's almost stressful!  I've had my fair share of anxiety trying to coordinate and schedule which places we needed to visit and when :)  I just didn't want to miss any!  But, luckily, we were able to get my top 3 parks in:  Shinjuku Gyoen, Ueno Park, and Inokashira Park.  And, we were even able to visit a few more spots as well.

Surprisingly, our base has some of the most beautiful sakura trees around!  They are huge, mature trees that line a few of the main roads here on base, making it as if you're driving through a tunnel of cherry blossoms.  The kids and I have had fun riding our bikes under the trees and every day you're sure to see any number of people outside taking pictures by them!

Our first big hanami outing (which means viewing of cherry blossoms) was to Shinjuku Gyoen, a large park in the middle of Shinjuku.  It was lightly raining and the kids were freezing, but the trees were absolutely beautiful!  So it was worth it!  Or at least that's what we kept telling them :)

Since I have far too many sakura pictures, I've decided to do a few posts, so . . . this is out of order, but the next few pictures are of the last place we visited!  The Tamagawa trail, which is just down the road in our neighborhood of Fussa.  It was especially pretty in the evening with the lanterns lit.

Stay tuned for more pictures from Ueno Park and Inokashira Park!

GPS Coordinates for Shinjuku Gyoen: 

35.685416, 139.710041

Family Bike Rides with the Mamachari

Last week we made a very exciting purchase.  We bought a mamachari!  Since being in Japan and seeing mamacharis literally EVERYWHERE, I've been itching to get one!  A classic mamachari is heavy bike with a low frame so that's easy to get on and off, and it usually has one or two baby seats and/or one or two baskets on the front and back.  Riding mamacharis is so commonplace in Japan that it almost seemed that in order to fully immerse ourselves in the culture we had to get one!

Mamacharis aren't cheap though, which is why we haven't yet purchased one.  But, luck was on our side!  Peter and the kids were at Hard-Off (I know, weird name!  But, don't worry, it's just a second-hand store!) last week just checking things out and they came across a mamachari with two bike seats that was in great condition!  The price, being about half of what we would pay for a new one, was just right, so we went back a couple of days later and bought it!

We've taken it out and ridden around our neighborhood a couple of times, but on Saturday we decided  to go on a ride down on a river trail nearby.  So, we drove out to Tamagawa (the Tama river), which has a trail that runs next to it, from Tokyo all the way out to the mountains to the west of us.  It was a little chilly, but it was a great ride, and it was fun to be outside.  Will had a blast and the two little ones are starting to get used to their ride on mom's bike :)

If you look closely in the picture below, you can see Clara's purple helmet peeking out on the side--she was trying to smile for the camera!