Sakura Time

Its Cherry Blossum (Sakura) time here in a big way. People going out for the day to see the trees; it seems to be a pretty big deal - they even cover it on the news every night. The trees do look nice and I guess its understandable seeing as they stand out in a big way in a country that so often seems smothered by concrete. Signed up for a free test Japanese lesson next week. The whole course seems pretty expensive but seeing as how its twice a week, two hours at a time, I'm hoping I'll actually pick up some useful Japanese and maybe, just maybe, be able to talk to some Japanese people. Still haven't found out where an indoor swimming pool is (really itchin' to go swimming). I asked one of my students in class the other day and she said theres a good one near Koshien. Unfortuantly, unless I get really good directions, being "near Koshien" isn't a huge amount of help. But I hope to know my way around there eventually because it turns out to be the location of the Hanshin Tigers stadium. They've a huge following around here and narrowly lost the baseball championship here last year. The games are supposed to have a great atmosphere and I definetly intend on trying to go to a few.