This is a magical time of year when all of the Cherry Blossoms bloom and the biggest story on the evening news is exactly *when* the trees will be full in your own area. Our turn was a few weeks ago and there were several picnic parties that ensued. The biggest was the Jame's party with some of our students. My youngest is Kanon, she's two and adored by her great uncle. I hope I'll be able to spend a little time with that family outside of class in the upcoming months. They are great people. As always, John was tackeled by the kids on a regular basis. Lisa and Nadine were making the rounds as well. After all of the students left, we went to join the other teachers just on the other side of the park. It was really a beautiful day and I wish we had stayed a little longer, but you see, we had bigger and better things planned. FIRST, we had to ditch Lisa. This was a trick, let me tell you! But it was her birthday and Yuta wanted to throw her a suprise at SMILE, his restaurant. So, one by one, we mysteriously disappeared and met at the restaurant. It worked and we all had a blast. These are pictures of our crew plus a few. Megumi is a wonderful member of the Jame's office staff. She's really the only one who comes out to parties with us. Esther was there, she is a social butterfly from England and also teaches us Ashtanga Yoga on Mondays. (oooohmmmmmm) Fabulous Trenton was there sporting the appropriate sakura pink, John Friday and I are doing the infamous Friday pout. Bryan and John holding up the wall. Nadine, Lisa and Megumi show off their stuff... and of course, just some various shots of Lisa during her birthday moment.