May 9

Spring has finally come to Hokkaido, bringing with it loads of cherry blossoms.

These two pictures where taken at the Nagayama Civic Building, just a block away from my office.

May 10
Hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing)

It is traditional during cherry blossom season in Japan to have what are called "Hanami," or cherry blossom viewing parties. The cherry trees only bloom for a week or two, so usually these parties are planned at the last minute to catch the blooms at the right time. At these parties, one usually sits under a park or grove of these trees, barbequeing lamb (Ghenghis Khan in Japanese) and drinking beer or sake. It's basically a big outdoor picnic.
My office's Hanami was held in Karguraoka Park, just a little bit south of the city's center. Kaguraoka was chock full of these beautiful trees, even though the blooms were starting to taper off a little by the time we had our party.
A little cookin' goin' on	Yum Yum
Not a cherry blossom tree, but still pretty	A father and son playing frisbee in the park
A lot of groups were having their Hanami at the same time	Kaguraoka playground
Tombstones?	Lavonda, Julianna, and Sumi-san
Ikeda-sensei brought along the wee one	Endo-kacho, the kidnapper
"We need more meat over here!"	There's alcohol at work here...
Myself and Endo-kacho, don't we look sketchy!
These last two pictures I snapped from a bridge while biking home from the party. You can see the Daisetsuzan Mountains in the background.

May 24
Sapporo Lilac Festival

John and I decided to head out to Sapporo this weekend just to hang out and do whatever. This weekend also happened to be the Lilac Festival in Sapporo. While there wasn't too much of a "festival" per se, there still were a ton of lilacs around.
You can walk through some of Sapporo underground	Odori Park
John, looking, well.... John-like	Lilacs lined the park
Once again, Odori Park	There are a lot of statues in Hokkaido
Sapporo Beer Garden - a Genghis Khan restaurant	Lilacs at the Beer Garden
More and more lilacs

May 30
Another Goodbye Party

In my March 26 entry, I talked about Goodbye Parties. Usually people who change jobs do so at the end of March. However, this was an election year, so the people in our office who work for General Affairs (as opposed to Education) are not changing until the end of May. Therefore, there has to be another Goodbye party. This time it was held in the Asahikawa Terminal Hotel. The following picture is the official Terminal Hotel photo of those in attendance.