The thing to do in Kanto last week was to go to "hanami" (rough translation: "let's use looking at flowers as an excuse for a huge picnic") and spend a day in the open with friends while enjoying the beloved "sakura" cherry blossoms while they're here. Apparently it's going to rain most of this week so the famously fragile sakura are probably going to be gone by next week, but I managed to do a bit of flower watching in Odawara and around Tokai campus, and finished it off with a picnic in Yoyogi park in Tokyo on Sunday. I've put up a small photo album with some pictures I took, although they don't really do the sakura flowers justice, as the weaknesses of the camera in my cellphone become quite apparent when trying to capture the details of Japans favorite pink/white flower.