Hanami

spring is almost here -its pretty exciting. the castle has pretty paper lanterns strung up everywhere in anticipation of hanami, the cherry blossom festival. it could start at any minute, just waiting for the cherry blossoms! once it starts everyone goes and sits under the trees on blankets and drinks sake all day. some people go from 6am just to get good spots. it doesnt last very long, just a few days i think, then all the blossoms fall off. though that is part of the celebration, letting go and welcoming change. apparently the blossoms should have come out this weekend, but it got kind of cold again. its around 20 every day this week, so they should start any minute....

i changed the dates on my ticket back from canada so that i can have a week in texas with p. cant wait -so much fun...

so we had another teacher arrive yesterday, a transfer from himeji, ben. very nice guy. and i mean very nice. hung out with him today and talked for ages about all sorts of good stuff. books and films. seemed to have a lot in common. though i dont hold out a lot of hope as he has just gotten out of a psycho relationship (hence the move to fukuyama), that he has been in pretty much his whole time here, so i imagine he will have some catching up to do in the jgirl stakes. he did mention he was surprised at how all the guys have student girlfriends as at his school everyone actually followed the rules, so maybe that hampered any desires he may have had to go there.

anyway, the next new teacher arrives on wednesday, so i am trying to remain sober until then. so far so good....

p.s. no word from atsushi. though im pretty sure p and i paid him a visit on friday night and probably lowered my chances even more....