April 6 Utsunomiya Cherry Blossom Tours

My day always starts with a great breakfast made by Kozue.  At the same time, Susumo and I practice our English and Japanese.  I am enjoying my time with them, but soon it will be ending. Every day, Kozue takes me to Teresa's apartment to spend the day with her.  I generally arrive anywhere between 7:30 and 9am.  This morning, on the way to work, I saw a bus stop to pick up a Kindergarten student.  In Japan, the only students who ride a bus are the Kindergartners.

Every day, I also check on the cherry tree-lined road we travel down, hoping the trees will start popping their beautiful flowers.  The season is so late this year due to the cold weather.

I have arrived at the Big B Apartment building where my friend Teresa lives.  

Go in and type in her apartment number, and she opens the door so I can come up.  I always enjoy my cup of coffee when I arrive at her house, and I generally always call hubby and have my morning chat with him :-)  We are leaving after my short chat with hubby for the day.  We are headed to get the car washed from the Chinese dirt and sand that has blown in all over Japan.   Teresa then gets out of her car and pays to get the car washed.

 

Never thought there would be anything great about a car wash in Japan, but oh yes, there was.  First of all, you park your car, and the entire building with the scrubbers in them move back and forth and cleans your car and dries it. No standing building was different from the USA.   

When the car wash was finished, Teresa and I got out, and she was taking the floor mats out of her car.  She told me there was a machine that cleaned them all she had to load them into the machine. (only in Japan)

There was even a rack with fresh towels to dry your car and a spray bottle with tire cleaner and a small mop to clean your tires.

We have finished the entire car inside and out.  Ready to leave and go to the Yamada store to look for a bottle that is shaped like a fish of red wine from Italy.  As soon as we got on the highway, it started to rain.  Never fails, the minute you wash your car, it rains. LOL
The Yamada store is very unique, as there are many specialty items you can find in there.
Noticed some items that I have seen in the USA, but never would I buy this cheap meat for the price they wanted at Yamada.





The store was out of the wine I was looking for, so now we are on our way to look for cherry trees to see if any are blooming yet.  Teresa drove us to a location that is famous for this huge cherry tree that is lit up at night when its bloomed.  On both sides of the shrine are 2 gold statues, and in front of the statues on the sidewalk are the footprints of the Gods.

 Once I peeked through the doors of the shrine, I saw the beauty that lay ahead.  Pink blooming cherry trees and a bud-ah and a set of stairs leading to the cemetery.  

 On the funeral day, the body is cremated. The guests take a small meal during that time in the crematorium. Afterwards, the relatives pick the bones out of the ash and pass them from person to person with chopsticks.
The actual funeral ceremony is then held by Buddhist monks according to Buddhist rituals. Many guests are present at this ceremony. Each of them will pay about 20,000 yen to the relatives and receive a small gift in return. After the end of the ceremony, another meal is held among the close relatives.
The urn is put on an altar at the family's house and kept there for 35 days. Incense sticks (osenko) are burned there around the clock (special 12-hour sticks for the night exist). Many visitors will come to the house, burn a stick, and talk to the family. After 35 days, the urn is finally buried in a Buddhist cemetery.

 Japanese are required to wash their hands and mouth in a natural spring or rock-hewn pool before entering a shrine. Visitors to the shrine use a ladle made from bamboo to wash both hands and then pour water into a cupped hand to wash their mouth. 

 It is believed that the higher the person is towards the heavens, the faster they will get there, hence the high staircases.

Finally, we have reached the top of the cemetery, and there are some beautiful cherry trees starting to bloom.

 Wow, glad we stopped here, such a beautiful place.
Now it's time to go pick up Valerie and Kensho.  They are waiting for us just like always :-)  So happy to see their smiling faces.  Today we are starting off our adventure by touring around the building that surrounded a castle at one time.   The weather is looking dark, and the wind has picked up sure hope this rain passes. Our arrival at the castle, as I call it, was just as nice as I remembered it.  This is the location where Teresa and I walked the first time I saw her in Japan.