We thought it would never come, but as always it has. Spring is here. This year the weather has been unusually warm in Japan and the flowers are out early. Last weekend (March 17,18) we took the ferry over the straight to Nagasaki. In the town of Kazusa our boss has a summer home (map). We took our bikes and biked halfway up to Mt. Unzen. Instead of going the whole way we decided to take it easy and took an onsen in the town of Obama. Obama is an onsen town that just reeks of sulphur. It was great. The picture of the pink plum blossoms was taken in Obama.

A few days later was March 21, the official start of spring and a national holiday in Japan. We had the day off but as present for the graduating third year junior high school students we went ice skating. 22 of them and 4 teachers took a minibus to Kumamoto City to the skating rink. It was great fun. For some of the students it was thier first time skating. Since we are experts (well at least the Canadian among us is) we spent a lot of time holding our students hands and trying to convince them to let go of the side boards. Most of them gave it a good shot and by the end we were having fun playing tag and throwing snowballs at each other. You can see a picture of our boss Johnny giving a lesson at right.

The end of March is Sakura (cherry blossom) Season and it is beautiful. We think that you have to build up an appreciation for sakura and after four years we are finally there. Maybe even more than the beaty of the flowers, the appeal of Sakura is the feeling that spring is here. During Sakura Season people are busy having parties under the trees and the parks are full of families and kids enjoying the start of the outdoor season. To the right is a picture of Sarah under one of the fabled trees. Below that is a picture of beautiful flower we found at the side of the road. Long time readers of our homepage already know we are suckers for a nice flower!!