Hanami Party

Monday, March 30th--Today, we did some math practice in the morning and then went to Shinjuku National Gardens to have a hanami party.  Shinjuku National Gardens is supposed to be one of the prettiest gardens in all of Tokyo, and we have waited to visit it until this special sakura season (cherry blossom time) was upon us.  We wanted to get off earlier than we did, but we waited for Caitlin to finish her math and then she decided that she was tired and didn't want to go after all. 

We got off at Shinjuku Station and had a hard time finding our way out of that place.  I have been to that station several times now, but it is the biggest train station in the world and I still get lost.  We were there for a little while, but finally we found our way out and began our walk to Shinjuku Gardens.  We had to walk several blocks, but we came this way because we had a scheduled stop along the way.

As we were walking, the boys noticed a "dinosaur" peeking over the top of a building.  Can you find him?   Godzilla! 

 Our scheduled stop was a Hello Kitty store that boasts the largest Hello Kitty ever made.  We don't know if that's really true, but she was pretty big.

 This is one of the nicer Hello Kitty stores in Tokyo, so we walked around for a little bit.

Look at the ceiling...wow.  Everything is pink and has flowers everywhere.  There were stars in some places as well.  Audra was in heaven.

 We finally made it to Shinjuku Gardens.  It was a little muggy today and we walked a lot farther than we thought it would be when we looked at it on the map.  It was no longer lunch time.  We were all getting irritated.  Once we got here, we were surprised at the numbers of people that were here having a hanami party of their own. 

It took us a little while to find a spot, but we found a great one!  Right under some cherry blossoms.  It was perfect.  It is normal to have a small tarp to sit on, but we don't have anything like that.  Instead, we are just using one of Kirstin's quilts and a towel. 

  
Flower viewing has a long history in Japan. It is said hanami started in the eighth century, during Nara era, although only noble families enjoyed hanami.  "Hana" means flowers, but it almost always refers to just cherry blossoms now.  Only noble or rich people were able to enjoy hanami until the 16th century.  It wasn't until after the 17th to 18th century that common people started to enjoy flower viewing along with boxed lunches and sake.

We were all very tired and hungry, since it took a lot longer to get here than we had originally planned.  We were so glad to finally be able to eat and relax.

I had carried Audra the entire way from Shinjuku Station to the gardens and I was tired.  I laid down and relaxed and enjoyed this view while the kids devoured the food.

 We watched everyone as they celebrated sakura and enjoyed their own hanami parties.  We sat here for about a hour and was getting ready to clean up and explore the gardens, when several security guards with bullhorns came by and were yelling at everyone.  We didn't know what they were saying, so we watched everyone else to try to figure out what was going on.  Everyone started to pack up and leave the park.  When I realized that the gardens were closing and we would need to leave, I got mad.  We had been trying to get here all day, and it was just one thing after another that kept us from getting here sooner in the day.  We had only been here for an hour, and hadn't even been able to see any of the gardens yet.  I had been looking forward to seeing Shinjuku Gardens for a few months now, and now that I had finally dragged my large brood here--and believe me, it takes some effort to take this many kids around Tokyo--, it was time to leave. 

 It would take the thousands of people that were here some time to leave, so instead of marching straight out of the gardens, we took our time and wandered a bit on our way out.  We wanted to go through a different exit than the one we came in because it would get us to a closer metro station.  None of us wanted to walk back to Shinjuku in the muggy air.  Going out through a different exit also made it so that we could see more of the blossoms than we had been able to.  (Audra is doing her 'sumo stance' in this picture)

 Kimono alert!

 We didn't feel too bad taking our time out of the gardens, since there were Japanese people also lingering and taking pictures in the blossoms as well.  When in Rome, do as the Romans do....right?

 We love the pink ones!

We didn't get to hardly see any of Shinjuku Gardens, and it was hard to leave.  Especially when we had a hard time getting here today.  But, what we were able to see was beautiful and gave us the motivation to come back.  Maybe tomorrow.....maybe we will be able to get here in the morning.....maybe......maybe I'm just dreaming that I will get these kids out at a decent time tomorrow.......sigh.
In spite of the fact that we were not able to get there sooner than we wanted to, we still really enjoyed having a traditional Japanese hanami party--minus the sake!  It is a great idea to sit under beautiful spring blossoms and enjoy them and the company of loved ones!  We usually have spring blossoms in our yard in America, maybe every spring from now on, we will have a hanami party under them!