A Day with the Family

So today, after a brutal website-coding yesterday, I decided to hang out with my family.

There was a treat at lunch today--dessert! It was dango (rice flour dumplings) with sweet adzuki beans and vanilla ice cream.

Mmmmm-mmm!

After lunch, we went to the library, where Hina checked out some books and I woefully stared at picture books I couldn't comprehend. :(

Then we went to visit a grave site and make offerings of chocolate biscuits and flowers. After that, despite the light rain sprinkling down, we took a walk through a park and I got to see plum blossoms!

Plum blossoms are thought by most (and referenced in a whole ton of poems) to be the sign of oncoming spring. Spring here we come! It's also considered one of the prettiest flowers, not counting the sakura (also known as cherry blossoms--they are considered the flower of awesome in Japan).

It was only in Japan that I got to see plum blossoms in the flesh, so to speak, for the first time. However, this is the first time I did a major photoshoot with them. Enjoy!

 

Hina-chan and I

Look at the various shades!

Then we went to an onsen (outdoor bath). Everyone was complaining about the cold (it was about 50 Fahrenheit and raining), but I thought the temperature was perfect to combine from the bath water and the air.

Refreshed and relaxed, we headed home where Okaasan made this delectable delight:

Doesn't it look good?

IT WAS SO GOOD.

The fish (I believe it was maguro--or fatty tuna) was just barely cooked to give it a little less chew, and I mixed the wasabi with soy sauce to drench the entire this (Otousan showed me how). I was in wasabi heaven.

Oh man, I love my Okaasan's cooking.

And that was my Sunday.