Day 3 - Saturday 31st March, 2018
After breakfast we walked to the train station (less than a 5 minute walk from our Hotel) and caught 2 trains from Kashiwa-no-ha station to Yachiyodai station, both are in the Chiba prefecture although it took 1 hour by train. The General Manager of our office in the mid 1980's lives there with his wife and we went to visit them for the day. I last saw them back in 2011 in Brisbane for a couple of hours, previously to that I last saw them back in 1988 when I left Marubeni pregnant with Kate. Mrs. O'hira bought these delicious sweets for us to have for morning tea at a nearby French Patisserie. They were just devine......
Then Mr. and Mrs. O'hira took us out to lunch at a nearby shopping centre to a cute little place for lunch., Here is a photo of me with Mr. O'hira outside the restaurant.
Mr. and Mrs. O'hira
Lunch, Tempura Pork cutlet and a prawn Tempura with pickled vegetables, also rice and Miso soup. It was really delicious.
We then went for a little drive in their cute little car to see Sakura Blooms.
This is their cute little house.
This is called "The New River" at Yachio in Chiba, the Sakura trees lined both sides of the river, they truly were a sight to behold.
Walking the path along the river I took many photos
During the Spring time with the Sakura blooming families take full advantage and picnic under the trees all weekend. It's just so lovely to see many people out enjoying themselves and the children running around having so much fun. In a country where the majority of people live in apartments and are confined all week, it was such a joy to see these sights in our travels everywhere we saw the Sakura blooms.
I took quite a few photos of the glorious trees driving along in the car, the day was warm so we had the windows 1/2 down in the car, it was also a little windy and the petals of the flowers were falling off the trees and into the windows and although I haven't seen snow (yet) in my life, it gave me the feeling of snow falling, it truly was magical.
Mrs. O'hira gave us all of these delicious goodies to take with us, can you see in the foreground some mandarins and yuzu fruits ! Mr. O'hira does some communal farming about 40 minutes drive from their house and he tends to the gardening every other day of the week. He will be turning 80 on 1st August this year and is very active. We enjoyed most of these in Japan including the Sake. I bought home the packets of rice which I am still to use.
Mrs. O'hira also gave each of us the following in a lovely carry bag. The Meiji chocolate was very delicious, it was a dark chocolate. The wrapped item on the right next to the chocolate is some Green tea.
Wait till you see what was in this lovely box
I unpacked it last Sunday and put it on my coffee table in the lounge room (my display room which is never used). LOL....... The most beautiful silk and gold thread table runner and 2 coasters, made in Kyoto. They came with a little pamphlet which included their web site so I checked it out and these items are a lot more expensive than I imagined. We were very spoilt, especially Sandra as she didn't even know Mr. and Mrs. O'hira,. They are such wonderful kind people.
I arranged my Japanese items on the coffee table which were previously displayed on my China cabinet. The big Japanese doll in the case I received from work 2 years ago when I left, she is truly gorgeous. Doesn't it looking stunning, I just love it, I now feel it completes the space.
I also wanted to add day 4 of my travels to this post however I think this is enough for now.
Cheers
Kaylee
Your Japanese friends are very kind. How fortunate that you were there for Sakura season!
ReplyDeleteYes they sure are Pamela. Oh yes I certainly was, a very special time.
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