sakura #1

for the japanese, spring will not arrive without 桜 sakura (cherry blossoms). it was rainy, yesterday. i’m sure the disappointing weather sank many japanese people’s hearts. (by the way, it was unofficially “gay’s day” yesterday, because march 3rd is girl’s day while 5th may is boy’s day in japan…ha, ha). i threw a little tea party at my home for my girlfriends from a local university i once worked for. i initially planned to hold a girl’s day party around march 3rd, but i couldn’t make it due to my mother’s illness. instead, i made it a 桜 party. so, i went out in the morning to get finger-seized cheese cakes from my favourite local patisserie.
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on my way home, i picked up 桜 under the cherry trees – a powder pink carpet of heart-shaped petals. i got carried away. back home, i prepared finger-sized sandwiches with cucumber and smoked salmon and chocolate mousse (i learned an easy recipe of raymond blanc from the guardian online). every guest brought in some snacks or sweets, too. one of those was a tiny bag of white and powder pink dragée: the colour of 桜, coincidentally. we had so many cups of english tea as sandwiches and cakes disappeared from the table. that was the time for us to forget all about calorie-taking. still, we enjoyed our chats the most. oh my goodness. our chats seemed to be unstoppable!
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in the meantime, it was a perfect sunday for お花見 o-hanami ( 桜 picnic). in the park, the almond, plum and other prunus-family trees were also in full bloom... just lovely.