The weather gods were not so cooperative this year for an outdoor Cherry Blossom Party, so at the last minute we moved it indoors to La Post restaurant in Okamoto. I brought a sprig of Cherry Blossom to decorate the table.
This year we had 8 attendees including myself. It was fun to be able to invite my former students Tomo, his wife Mizuko and their son Kai. They came back from Los Angeles last year after living there for 4 years! Tomo explained many things about he and his family’s experience in LA where he worked as a medical researcher. He said it was a great experience and the whole family are great English speakers. Tomo and Mizuko said they really enjoyed living in the states.
My other students Aiko, Kazuki, Masafumi and Miho were very surprised at how bilingual Kai is. He seems to be able to switch between English and Japanese anytime as he likes.
Aiko was happy to be able to talk with Miho as they were from the same university but had not met before. Miho started work as a pharmacist and Aiko just got a job offer. So there was plenty to celebrate! The service at La Post was excellent as always and the food and drinks were very very good.
After the great lunch and excellent conversation, we took a walk near the Smith’s School of English Okamoto and the elementary school across the street. Many blossoms had fallen off but the trees were still beautiful to see. While Tomo played with his son Kai, we walked a little way up the mountain just north of the Hankyu Kobe line. The weather suddently was very nice although still a bit too cold to spend a long time outside. I am sure that some people who started their Hanami Kai after 2:00 pm on April 6, 2014 had a nice enough time before the sun went down. But we were very satisfied with our “in-door! Cherry Blossom Party. Another student Hiroshi also took a walk up to Hokura Shrine above Okamoto and took the following beautiful picture. Thank’s Hiroshi!
Leave a Reply