Tokyo, farewells, Hanami and culmination

Hello everyone!

It´s been some days... yes, I know... family over and exhausting days!

The two weeks my family was in town we have had intense and beautiful moments. During their last week in Tokyo, the weather was quite awful (a couple of days intensively raining that impeded us to go to Nikko :-((

I can say that they have seen more of "outside Tokyo" than myself again but I hope to come back soon to make it up. During the stay in Tokyo I was the leader ;-) and they saw many places of things quite traditionally "touristic" as well as "daily life" things... I was told they enjoyed a lot and looked so!

Although 2 weeks seemed long... they went really fast. Last Sunday I saw them off and now, 48 hours later, they are back to their routines...

Due to the bad weather, the Sakura season (Hanami ) in Tokyo has started a little bit later but we perceived a flavour of it during our visit to Ueno.

Now is the real countdown. March, although not working anymore, has been an exciting, busy and intense month. Full of celebrations and farewell. On Sunday, after I said goodbye to my family I participated in one event from "FEW" (Foreign Empowered Women in Japan), group of energetic and inspired woman in Japan. Really worth going!!
In the evening I had a meeting with my teacher (sensei) from the "volunteering" place in my neighbourhood (Shinjuku). She and her husband (who also at the time invited some foreigners to celebrate some Christmas party at their house), invited Hélêne and me to have a little cruise in the Tokyo river around the walkways full of cherry blossoms. During the journey we had the exhibition of a Maiko (the young girls aspiring to become Geishas) but not only it was that surprise but later on (I say that life for Japanese people is built around food!) we were taken to a beautiful traditional restaurant where we eat a wonderful dish consisting of some fish boiling in a pan while we were sitting on the floor adding some vegetables to the "nabe" (pan). Really interesting and delicious!

Monday morning... heading for the airport. I want to give a present to myself, after all I have earned it! ;-) Some relaxing days in Indonesia before coming back to Europe!

I am writing from the terrace, viewing the sea, the surfers and the swimming pool. It is sunny (good for my skin tone that has not seen the sun for the last 2 years!) and my plan is.... sunbathing, listening to music, swim and read some books from Japanese literature. In summary, relaxing, enjoying and getting ready for starting life again from a "fresh" point of view, back in Europe and that is why I call it "culmination"... not bad, isn´t it??

Before writing a long "farewell" post and add more pictures (some people prefer pictures to words.... ;-)), I would like to thank everyone that has been reading this blog during the last months.
Please, accept my apologies for not having a very "professional" blog or not updating it as much as I would have liked it. I have to give a big thank to some many expatriates and friends whose blogs have inspired me and taught so much about Japan, life, society or Asia in general.

I intend to continue posting things from time to time. Be certain that this is not the last one! (I have tons of memories and thoughts in my head and will need to vent them somehow!)

I go to the water now... greetings for everyone, be happy and Enjoy Your Life because you are the owner of it!!