A little late, but here comes summer...

Summer has finally reared its ugly head in the Nagoya area. After a few weeks of `in between` weather, winter has let out it`s final death rattle and the humid days of summer are upon us. Now that I have been in Japan for all 4 seasons I can honestly say that spring is by far the most comfortable. Just as in Canada, spring here seems to be the time for everyone to go a little crazy, have BBQ`s and actually smile. In Japan, this is also the time when the air conditioning gets turned on (May 1st every year, regardless of the weather) and when women bring out the ridiculously high stiletto sandals. Quite nice really.

This being our last spring in Japan we did a lot of sightseeing and tried to take advantage of the exciting activities that tend to happen in April/May. The cherry blossom season began in late March and by mid April the trees were in full bloom. We made a trip to Himeji castle, one of the oldest and biggest castles in Japan, to view cherry blossoms. As with most things here we were able to take in the beauty of the season with our 1000 closest friends and revelers, all armed with extremely expensive digital SLR cameras. All bitterness aside, the experience was amazing! The combination of beautiful white blossoms and a gigantic castle made for some pretty good pics.