Saturday, April 21, 2012

Today is my last day in Hikone. Tomorrow morning I have to leave JCMU. These past two weeks have been very busy with presentations, exams, and packing, but now it is all over. It’s a very weird feeling knowing that I won’t be living here anymore, but I know I will be back to Japan soon, so I’m not too worried. I’m so glad that I got come here and travel so much.

I’m also glad that before I left the weather finally got nice and it felt like a real spring! And in Japan, spring means cherry blossoms! The cherry blossom trees are a very important symbol for the Japanese people, and they are very popular. Every year many Japanese people participate in hanami or flower viewing. They have picnics under the cherry blossom trees and enjoy viewing them while spending time with friends and family. This year I got to do hanami twice, once with my friends from school and once with my conversation partner.

We went to Hikone Castle, and it was packed! Hanami is very popular, and Hikone Castle is well known for its cherry blossoms. The city even shut down a few roads surrounding the castle because there was so much pedestrian traffic! I had a fun time, the cherry blossoms are beautiful, and I got to eat lots of good Japanese food!

Last night I got to go out with some friends to karaoke as our last hurrah in Hikone. We ended up staying and singing until 3 in the morning when the karaoke place closed. It was a good way to end my time here with my friends. Just a few more days and I will be back in America visiting all the friends I have been missing over the past 4 months.