Sakura at Gotemba

Last week, my good friend and fellow teacher visited from MA.  She had lived here many years ago and was anxious to visit her old "hometown" of Gotemba, a small town at the base of Mount Fuji.  We took a shinkansen (bullet train) to get there, and as we did, we noticed the weather getting milder and the altitude higher.  It felt great to get out of the big city for a day.

The main attraction in Gotemba is the Peace Park.  Lucky for us, the cherry blossoms at this higher altitude were at their peak.

"Scent of natural civilization"?

Cherry blossoms - sakura - are a very important symbol in Japanese culture. 

Cherry blossoms symbolize the transient nature of life. 

The pagoda with golden Buddha statues 

These various statues were gifts to the park from other Buddhist countries.  Are they depicting dog, or lions - what do you think?  We thought they looked like lions but later read that they are dogs. 

Finally a few moments of sunshine!

Then, more rain.  We waited a long time for a bus to take us back into town, and when the bus finally arrived and we hopped on, we couldn't help but laugh out loud, because the bus was full of sleeping school girls, all in similar uniforms, ranging in age from elementary school to middle school.  We were the only other people on the bus - it was so cute and we really got a kick out of it.

Eventually most of them woke up!  School days and commutes are long in Japan!

Alyson and I then made our way to the small clinic where her son was born years ago.  The staff was very friendly and insisted that we go upstairs to see the babies:).

And then it was time to get back to Tokyo.  With the rainy weather, we never did get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji, but it was a great day nonetheless.