Today is June 3. It is already summer. The last time I posted a blog was in February. How lazy I am! I apologize to all those who participated in the cherry blossom viewing walk.
On April 3, we had our annual cherry blossom viewing party at Ueno Park. However, due to the Corona disaster, banquets were prohibited both last year and this year. So we decided to take a hanami walk. Last year, Mr. Lin and I happened to walk around Ueno Park to see the cherry blossoms, and it was unexpectedly wonderful, so we decided to invite everyone to join us.
This year, the cherry blossoms in Ueno Park are expected to be in full bloom on Wednesday, March 30. The weekend close to this is forecasted to be completely rainy. So we decided to do it on Sunday, April 3.
Friday,April 1, I took a preliminary inspection of the course by bicycle. Last year, we walked from Ueno Park to Nippori Station via Yanaka Cemetery and took the Yamanote Line back to Ueno Station, but this time we decided to go in the opposite direction. The reason why I decided to do so is because I made a small discovery.
When I took a preliminary inspection, I arrived at the north end of Yanaka Cemetery and turned back the way I had just come,I saw more cherry trees than I had seen on my way in. Because it was a gentle downhill on the way back. I noticed that the line of sight when going up tends to be lower, but the field of vision when going down is wider.
On the day,It rained all day. The cherry petals dancing in the wind were beautiful, but I was a little worried about the amount of blossoms, so we decided to take a "cherry blossom blowing snow walk" to enjoy the snowstorm in Ueno Park.
Unlike usual members, many of us met for the first time this time: three graduate students studying IT in Japan, a medical graduate student, Mr. O, who also joined for the first time, an elementary school teacher, Ms. I, Mr. K from Dubai, whom I introduced in this blog before, Ms. K, a local English teacher who is making efforts for disaster prevention, and myself.
We met at 12:30 p.m. in front of the central ticket gate in JR Ueno station. First, we took a train from Ueno Station to Nippori Station. Despite the rain, there were quite a few visitors at Yanaka Cemetery. As expected, there are graves of historical people in Yanaka Cemetery, including that of Eiichi Shibusawa.
The cafe at Sakura Jyoen, which I visited last year, was reserved, but we all visited the building grave. The cherry blossoms at Kan'eiji Temple were almost all gone.
After that, we intended to take a break at the International Library of Children's Literature, but they were handing out numbered tickets only during this season. But we were able to take a break without waiting. From there, I looked for restaurants around Ueno where we could all eat together with my cell phone, but they were all full and we could not get a seat. We had underestimated that the weather would be rainy, but the crowds around Ueno Station were unbelievable. We were about to give up on eating together when Ms. K, a local English teacher who joined us later, suggested Denny's in Nezu. We had forgotten that Denny's existed even though it was nearby, so we quickly moved from Ueno Park to Nezu, arriving there in less than 10 minutes, and all 8 of us were soon seated and eating, as Denny's is not used by tourists.
As one would expect from a local disaster prevention expert! After that, we went back to Ueno Park and visited Shinobazu no Ike (Shinobazu Pond) before we disbanded. Thank you everyone for your hard work. It was an unforgettable hanami.
Around this time, there were many big changes in my surroundings. First of all, my job description changed drastically: my official duties, which had been five days a week until March, were reduced to two days a week from April. Then I resumed full-fledged freelance work as an illustrator five days a week.
And the biggest incident for me was that I developed lumbar spinal stenosis. The diagnosis was that I might need to have surgery at a university hospital. In the end, I decided to forego surgery and do exercise therapy. I found a good acupuncturist in my neighborhood and so far I am recovering well. I can't walk long distances, but I can ride my bicycle with no problem, so let's have an outdoor lunch at Ueno Park together again.
February 12th. It was a consecutive holiday, but we couldn't go anywhere, so Lin and I suddenly decided to have an outdoor lunch in Ueno Park for the first time in a while. But it was too cold, so we had lunch at Kentucky and went into Ueno Park. After watching the street performance for a while, we went to Kotobuki Bath. There were a lot of people in the park and at the bathhouse. and Only one cold cherry tree was already in bloom in Ueno Park.
The next weekend, I went to Asahi-yu in Yanaka by myself. Asahi-yu is smaller than Kotobuki-yu and has no events or open-air baths, but I like it because it reminds me of a traditional public bath.
Previously, I posted that my house friends appeared on TV, but I also appeared on the same program after that. At that time, there were a lot of other people, but this time it's a little more up, so I'll introduce it again! Carred will appear on another station's program soon, so please look forward to it.
今回もTBSの世界くらべてみたらと言う番組です。
This time too, it is a program that I would like to '世界くらべてみたら' of TBS.
今回は世界中のお金持ちの買い物を特集しています。
This show features rich shopping around the world.
Omicron is widespread in Tokyo, but today I went to Kotobukiyu in Ueno alone. Kotobukiyu is a popular public bath with an open-air bath despite the city center. The facility of Kotobukiyu is a traditional public bath, but you can also take a variety of hot springs by holding an event every month.Originally, a member of the share house taught me Kotobukiyu three years ago. After that, I sometimes go with my overseas friends. I can't shoot in the public bath, so I will introduce the information on the internet that Kotobukiyu introduces.
There are places to change clothes on the second floor as well as the first floor. There is also a sauna for an additional fee. The water bath is also open-air.
着替えるところは二階にもあります。別料金でサウナもあります。水風呂も露天になります。
You can also enjoy various daily medicinal baths. By the way, on February 14th, Valentine's Day, the open-air bath is likely to become a chocolate bath (a bath salt containing cocoa butter).