I'm not going to write too much about my weekend but just upload some pictures instead. I went up to Umaji/Yanase for some hanami drinking. Sunday was a slightly bizarre day in that we went as far as you can into rural Japan. Yanase is a tiny village next to a dam up in the mountains and we were all pretty drunk by lunch time. It was an unusual but enjoyable atmosphere with things like deer stew, amateur magic shows and a terribly slow train that went around in a circle. In the middle of it all were the loud foreigners, speaking broken Japanese and gaining a lot of attention as usual.

At the やなせ (ya-na-se) dam. Naomi (Irish), Khalil (Tunisian) and Kanae (Japanese).

At these festivals it is common for people to throw rice cakes (餅-mochi) to a crowd. Kids and old women go mental over this. It's interesting to see that strong Japanese face break down when it comes to free cakes. The guy in the middle was cool and bought as food.

These women took themselves very seriously.

Naomi teaches these kids in Umaji. They were adorable and bought us a can of coffee each. We then ran around and played tag with them. Afterwards I wondered if they realised we were drunk and that's why they bought them.

安田川 (Yasuda River) Naomi and I went swimming upstream later on. It was absolutely freezing. If I were to say it was so cold I felt like I was on fire... would that make sense?