I apologize for the lack of updates. I haven't had a lot to say, and I haven't felt like sitting in front of my computer pounding out a boring list of what I've done lately. It ends up taking up a whole day that I could have spent exploring Tokyo, and the thing is, I'm really starting to feel how little time I have left before I return home at the end of July.

One of the big things I've done recently was o-hanami (flower viewing). The sakura have come and gone in Tokyo, and when they were in full bloom, everyone went out to have picnics under the trees. Don't let anime fool you, cherry blossoms are white, not pink. But no matter what color they are, they're definitely beautiful.

It's midway through April and it's still not quite warm yet. I'm worried we'll skip comfortable weather and go straight back into the awful humidity we had when I arrived in September.

I'm trying to seize my remaining opportunities here, which means less time spent on the internet. Sorry for neglecting this blog for so long.

My study abroad program also took an overnight trip to Minakami, where we stayed at the ryokan where Matt worked I got to see my host family again. It was nice, but it was confusing in light of my recent uncertainty about whether I'll come back to Japan after I graduate. A joke about Matt and me coming back to work caused Suzuki-san to reveal that the city office was actually in the process of making a foreign-tourism-relations sort of job.

I'll have a lot more to say and hopefully a lot less ennui after next week. It's my birthday next Sunday, and on Friday I'm going to a butler cafe to celebrate. Gotta try these things that only exist in Japan.