March 20th : Spring, Sprang, Sprung !

The sky is blue, the trees are blossoming, we are in holidays, life is beautiful.

Little walk to the park around the corner : surprise ! The earlier and pinkest sakura are already in flowers !

And that's only a beginning...

Pink, pink, pink on me !

Having a picnic at Yoyogi Park almost every week during Spring is a must-do when you live in Tokyo. And bring many beers. This is a must-have. And prepare yourself to play the "Yamanote Game" and its many variations - for the ones who don't know, the Yamanote Game consists in saying the name of the different stations of the Yamanote Line that makes a circle around Tokyo (like Shinjuku, Shinagawa, Nihombashi, Ueno...), one after another ; the first person who repeats the station someone already said, or who cannot answer anymore, has to live the game. You can play the game with names of famous people (actors, sportmen...), capital cities, sports... whatever. It seems simple but not so much, actually. Just try at your next picnic !

今週末は本当にいい天気だから、友達と代々木公園ピックニックをしに行きました。山手線ゲームを始めてしました。楽しかったです。春のピックニックをエンジョイしましょう！

This is spring... Golden Week is coming... we all need to take a break and to relax...

Some of us will be lucky enough to enjoy onsen soon. For the ones who will not have this pleasure, let me help you to imagine. First, imagine that you are amazingly clean, cleaner that you have never been (no offense). This is because you took the greater shower of your life just before, and you washed yourself from the toes to the hair - this is mandatory. When you're finally shining like a baby, you can enter onsen. It is so warm you have to breath with your whole skin. Water is not only pure, it's mineral, powerful, because it comes from the depth of earth. The air around you is almost liquid. Blond skins like mine get red into five minutes but the Japanese keep pale and beautiful, only the cheeks get pink. Once you get use to environment, you can appreciate the peaceful atmosphere. Everybody is naked, everybody is relax, everybody is rejuvenating. This is onsen. Come and try.

Just can't get enough, as they say... Sakura, sweet blossoming Tokyo, sun, spring... I'm addicted and I just can't get enough.

(Fresh picture from Meguro this morning, on the way to work, go and back... Life could be worse.)

This is the same beauty every year, but I just can't get enough ! Tokyo at spring is totally pink, from the sakura to the sky. Have a walk under the cherry trees, by a sunny Sunday, and let's go back with blossoms in the hair and brand new hope in the heart !

今年も桜はきれいですね。東京はピンクになりました。今日日曜日だから散歩して、色々な桜が見られました。本当にいい感じ！

At Rinshi-no-Mori

At Musashi-Koyama

At Meguro

ばら色の人生ですね。

La Vie en Rose...

Sometimes... sometimes... it's sunny around Paris.

Yes. It's not an April Fool. Just check these pictures. Isn't it a nice preview of the Japanese sakura ?...

Let's enjoy the spring flowers this year like never !

This is the first open-cemetery I have seen in my life : no gate, no fence around the grave-yard; the normal street just becomes the Aoyama cemetery street and that's it, you walking into the "garden of souls"... It's green, a bit wilder than the city around you can visit from dawn to sunset. Some people do their jogging around the graves, some other do pic-nics during the summer. It's actually a lively place...
I was looking for the grave of François Bonne, a little priest from my aunt/uncle/cousins' region, la Chartreuse (France) who became bishop of Tokyo around 1911, but I couldn't find it i the Gaijin-bochi. It was one century ago...

It's not far away from my dear Shinjuku 3chome : here is my new playground, between Iidabashi and Ichigaya. I spend the last days in Japan at a friend's place, two minutes by foot from the very beginning of Kagurazaka-dori. The area is trendy, full of bakeries, French restaurants and cosmopolitan stores. Not bad for a second Japanese home...

Some new riversides...

People... fishing...


Conscience matters

Tokyo is full of confidential resources... At the end of Omotesando, behind Prada, there is a an oasis called Nezu Museum. Not only you can enjoy artworks and exhibitions there, not only you can have a nice bowl of macha but you can also have the most restful, peaceful walk after your frantic Harajuku shopping... Judge by yourself.

May is the month of carps in Japan. You can see hundred of them in the rivers, fighting against the stream, who eventually will become dragons... They are also the symbol of little boys, celebrated every year the last day of the Golden Week (May 5th). In the Kanda river, behind my place, some of them seem to have a rest so I could take a few pictures.

すぐに子供の日になります。現在、神田川はとてもきれいで、鯉が見られます。