And so it begins . . .

Well, spring (and the cherry blossom period) are both far away, but I was surprised to see some trees starting to flower.

Here's a picture of a tree in Shinjuku National Garden. A few trees in the garden (which I visited for the first time on Saturday with Scott and Meredith) were flowering, and you could tell which ones were flowering because they were surrounded by Japanese people taking very pictures with very SERIOUS cameras as well as people painting the early blossoming trees.

I, of course, forgot my camera, so Scott took this picture.Scott and Meredith are here, as well as our friends Miso and Peso. The first two are staying at the Lost in Translation hotel (very swank!) while the latter two are staying in similar quarters out here in Tsukuba with us.

Yesterday we all went to Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, and Omotesando. Today we are all headed out to Kamakura (hope the sunny weather holds!) and then to join Mike for a yummy dinner at Raku in Shibuya.