My birthday

My birthday came and went. By far the quickest year of my life! It seemed as though it was just yesterday I had a little one in cupcake pants :)

We met our neighbors downstairs for some takoyaki and they were by far the best we've ever had! One of our neighbors even made me a Japanese cheesecake (crustless), and we had ice cream too! :) Yum!

After lunch, we went to the Hokkaido University botanical garden...but it had closed for the day! Bummer! 

So instead we went to the end of Odori park hoping to get some good rose appreciation. In the past, my birthday has followed the same formula: rain, cake, good food, roses, photography. It's funny to me that some things just never change. ;)

Cool slides in Odori park.

Look at the blooms! :)

Kevin and I agreed that this rose was the most intense red we'd ever seen.

These towers were just gorgeous. This rose was Butterscotch if I remember correctly.

The roses were beautiful, but pansies will always catch my eye ;)

After the rose garden, we went to Kevin's school so he could check on his project and after that, we looked for Picante, a soup curry restaurant, which is by Hokudai. We found it tucked away and had an amazing soup curry dinner that has me salivating just remembering it! :) 

Great birthday indeed!

Hokudai campus hanami

Oh boy, do I have pictures to share! Brace yourself, posts are coming!

Last weekend, we spent Saturday afternoon at a hanami party at the university. Kevin's department had a BBQ between the wings of their lab under two amazingly gorgeous cherry trees. 

The variety in the pictures before were called Somei Yoshino and are the early variety. The ones blooming now are the later variety Yaezakura. Personally, I find this latter variety more beautiful since the blooms are layered like roses and the color is more intense. To read more about cherry blossoms and varieties, click here.

We were told Sapporo and Hokkaido isn't the best for cherry blossoms and I guess, maybe compared to other more famous Japanese cities it's true, but I have NOT been disappointed and it's been a beautiful season to experience!

We left the hanami party, to run some errands and enjoy the weather. We stopped at this little pond on the campus for some pictures. 

 This avenue is pretty famous. At least if you google Hokkaido University it pops up. ;)

The campus and this road runs through town so lots of bike traffic coming and going.

Something unexpected and beautiful we've seen has been the Japanese maples in violent shades of crimson red.

Apparently some varieties open their leaves in this color instead of an ordinary green, then turn green for summer, then red again in fall. 

I can only imagine the beauty of fall here!

 

There was this massive weeping cherry tree on the campus too!

Amazing!

 

One of our neighbors shared her hanami experience with us. She rode her bike 300km to Hakodate in Southern Hokkaido and back. Hakodate is a coastal town famed for it's giant fortress and cherry blossoms. But she said, the variety of trees there aren't appealing to her because they look like "kaeru tamago" or frog eggs. What has been seen, cannot be unseen!

 

And yeah, I'm the person who stops in the middle of a sidewalk to crouch for a flower picture. You're not? ;)

Next: Mother's Day: Japan edition