It is cold and rainy and windy and downright dreary today. I'm bummed, cause it's the weekend and I wanted to get out and explore more of Tokyo, but we are just hanging around the apt. It's too damned miserable outside to do anything. We'd be soaked to the bone even in a short walk to the subway station. I'm getting antsy now that we have only weeks left in Tokyo. There are so many items on our list of things to do and see and the time is just dwindling away...

Last weekend Brad and I went Yokohama for the second time since we've been here. This time our destination was Sankei-en, a large garden on the outskirts of town. The garden is on the site of the estate of Sankei Hara a wealthy silk merchant. Like so many of the gardens in Japan, the landscaping is breathtaking. On the grounds of the garden are several minka or Japanese farm houses. The minka were relocated from Kyoto and Kamakura and rebuilt and integrated into the landscaping of Sankei-en. The park is said to have scores of cherry trees and that was the reason we decided to go there, but we were a bit early for the blossoms. Strange since the trees in Tokyo were reaching their peak at about the same time. There was even a sakura (cherry blossom) festival planned for the weekend at Sankei-en. Despite the shy blooms, the festival went on as scheduled. We were treated to a half-hour performance of Japanese folk dancing and drama, the highlight of which was a shishimai (lion dance) performance. I've been wanting to see a shishimai ever since we moved here and now at least I can tick that off my list of things to see.