Sugary treats.

Maple cream cake that I spotted in Tokyo this afternoon. I didn't try it or buy it because it didn't look appealing to me, just odd.  It looked a little bit like a Twinkie.This little tea shop is in downtown Zushi.
Original and Macademia Oreo bars on top and Green Tea and Strawberry Oreo bars on the bottom. These are way too good! I haven't tried the strawberry ones recently, but I tried them when we lived in Japan before. The way I remember them tasting was like chocolaty goodness with little bits of Strawberry Chapstick. Maybe you can understand why I haven't opened this bag.
These Cherry Kit Kats came with a music download. There were three songs to choose from. I bought two boxes, so I downloaded two of them.

Minobusan

We visited Mt. Minobu back on the 4th of April. They were having a cherry blossom festival so the area was beautiful, but I would bet that this area is beautiful anytime of the year.

That weeping cherry tree is about 400 years old.

A 5-story pagoda on the grounds.

This little boy was making paper. There was a very long line to do this and we were short on time. I wish I had seen it earlier because you could decorate the paper with Sakura, or cherry blossoms. It was very pretty.

These people are looking out on the Japanese Alps from the top of Minobusan at 1,153 meters. I believe this was the South Observation Deck. The view from the East Observation Deck was of Fuji.

We took a cable car to get up here. I don't have any good pictures from the cable car because, like everything else here, it was crowded!

I thought this was pretty. That tree in the corner is the same 400 year old tree from above.

Takatoriyama

Mt. Takatori is a popular rock climbing place in our area. I usually hike through here in the early morning hours and never see them out. Thursday I got lucky. It was a beautiful day and the climbers were out en masse.

That top picture there is what I'm going to call "trick photography". Some of the walls are quite high, but this may have been a beginners class.

I think we saw climbers on four or five rock faces that day.

Kanazawa Zoo Park and the beautiful Jinmuji trail.

These two places are nowhere near each other, but they were both an awesome way to spend a Thursday!

The Japanese kids are back in school, so we pretty much had the park to ourselves.  The last time we were here it was a bit cold out.  Today it was beautiful, but there still weren't many people.

This is one of the ways up to the top of the big rollerslide.

I have posted photos of this Buddha several times.  It is on one of my favorite hiking trails near Takatoriyama.  If you haven't been here yet, now would be a great time to go!  There are some Cherry Blossom trees almost framing the face.  It is very pretty right now.

My friends and I opted to walk down to Oppama Station from the Buddha.  The Sakura trees are really starting to drop their petals.  So much so that it looked like it was snowing.

I finally got a picture of this!  If you need help when you are buying train tickets, you press a call button and a panel in the wall opens up and a guy pops out to help you.  I took this photo at Keikyu Oppama Station.

Showa Koen... head in the clouds.

This park is called Showa Kinen Koen. It's located right outside of the Nishi-Tachikawa gate of the JR Chuo line. I love this park!!!

The Sea of Clouds! I'm pretty sure I was able to bounce 2 meters in the air here! The tops of each of these marshmallow like mounds are very bouncy. Far more bouncy than your average trampoline. The areas in between were not as bouncy, but no less fun. The kids we had with us spent two hours running all over this area and we still had to drag them off!

This area, according to the guide we picked up when we arrived in the park, is 1,600 meters squared. There were three areas here. Two were huge and the third was slightly smaller and geared more towards smaller kids and people with mobility impairments.

This is the Rainbow Hammock area. I took this photo from the top of a slide looking towards the nets.

Adults are not allowed on these nets, but they really look like fun! They remind me of the kind of nets trapeze artist fall into after their act. The kids loved this area! Actually, they loved the whole park!The Dragon Dunes. Dragons appear to be swimming throughout this area. Kids can climb under, over, and through all of these dragons. If they aren't too tired from the clouds (can you see them in background?), they'll want to spend a lot of time here.

The Misty Forest would be a welcome and refreshing place to visit after the workout you get on the clouds. We actually visited here first. Next time....

There is a flower festival going on right now at Showa Kinen Koen. We were at the park right when it opened at 09:30, but we were behind a dozen or so photographers. On our way out, there were thousands (my estimate) of photographers. It is so beautiful there right now. There are Cherry Blossoms above and beautiful Spring flowers below. Pictures really don't due the grounds here justice.

This is the Bonsai Garden in the Japanese Garden area. There was one bonsai here that you aren't allowed to take pictures of. I don't know what the significance of that tree was. I never got close enough.

Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) at Ueno Park

I had heard that Ueno Park was THE place to go to see the Cherry Blossoms in this part of Japan. It certainly was beautiful and very popular! Here is a link to some other places to see Japan's unofficial flower.There was a bit of a circus atmosphere to the whole thing. This guy was quite high up and balancing.

All these people were here on a Tuesday afternoon watching the side show.

I would guess that there were thousands of people in the area. I saw a few people in kimonos, but it was a weekday, so most people looked like they were just eating their lunch under the snowing trees.

I need to start taking more pictures of the manhole covers here in Japan. They all have a story to tell. This one is in Ueno Park. Ueno Park is known for it's Sakura trees, and perhaps their Ginko trees.

Green Tea Oreo bars. I have had the Macadamia and the Strawberry ones, but these are new.

Fertility Festival!!! -- Warning explicit photos.

We went to the Fertility Festival in Kawasaki today. Aren't the "ladies" escorting the big pink member beautiful?

Throngs of worshippers take in the phallus parade. There's a black on on the left, followed by the pink one, and there was one carved from a tree trunk closely behind.

I was not the first person to stop and request a photo from this guy.

Playing with food. Carving male and female anatomy parts out of daikons.

This was so funny, I had to try it myself. There were two wooden ones set up. This is actually the smaller of the two. There were a ring of mostly men standing around cheering and taking photos. I took this lady's photo by standing on the bigger wooden one to take this photo. When I was on it, I had a bunch of "fans" telling me exactly where to sit and what to do. I don't think I could physically do.

Okay, before you ask, my husband asked her if he could take her picture and she and her husband thanked him for taking it.Happy little suckers.I wonder where one would burn these?