Not sure if these are plum or cherry but I am pretty sure they are plum, because they bloomed much earlier than the cherry trees which are gorgeous now.

Masa and I attempted going to the St. Patti's Day parade, but only caught the tail end of it, because we got caught up visiting some parks and scouting out locations for my Birthday-Easter-Hanami (picnic)


Sunset in early March from our balcony

My routine breakfast, minus the strawberries. I love reading the New Yorker and drinking green tea, occasionally green tea lattes a la Argo.

Thank you for all the cards and more!

Some early cherry blossoms.

My little Bonsai from the kit, thanks Hannah C.

General update:

• We have had a few minor earthquakes which scare me just the same, especially the one on the February 17^th in the am, I woke up to the bed shaking. March 13th the whole building was shaking at night.
• Rice field art. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1198381/Bizarre-spectacle-giant-crop-murals-covering-rice-fields-Japan.html Thank you Hannah W.
• I had my first two chance meetings this month, I met a coworker at Starbucks in a different neighborhood from where we work and two friends from Suffolk in my neighborhood after work a couple of Fridays ago.
• A few points about the Japanese culture which I discussed on the phone in detail with my aunt: WW2 is completely hushed up, it also seems difficult to admit trivial mistakes, I am finding the culture of not questioning and blaming others a little challenging.
• One of the biggest surprises when I arrived in Japan was that people don't walk their dogs, they put them in dog strollers. Just google "dog strollers" for an image.
• I finally figured out why the unemployment rate is so low in Japan. In places where in Germany and the US you would have one person working, Japan has 10 workers, for example at a construction site to direct traffic.