Hanami

A couple of weeks ago, the cherry blossoms were in bloom.  It was pretty much raining during the entire length of the bloom except for one particular weekend where it cleared up and not a single cloud was in the sky.  Hanami literally means flower viewing and in Japan, it can be a pretty big thing.  Families, friends, co-workers all gather under the cherry trees and have sort of a picnic.  Haha, I've heard stories of junior sarariman (salary men) holding spots for hours until their seniors arrive.  It's kind of hard to do on this side of the water because it rains so much, but this one day, me and a few fellow iaidoka got lucky.

The trees in Queen Elizabeth Park were probably the last ones to bloom in Vancouver, and although they look pretty pink in the pictures, they were starting to fall and the leaves were just starting to come out. 

We had an assortment of typical Japanese picnic food like onigiri, pickles, karage, beef skewers, fruits, tako weiner and a bunch of other stuff.

Sake cups

I know this is a food blog, and there's not a whole lot of food in this post, but I figured it's a nice change.  Besides, with all the gloomy weather we've had all winter, it's nice to see some blue skies accented with pink sakura.