Fumie is getting extra creative with Anthony's bentos these days. In honor of the upcoming Children's Day holiday, during which koinobori (carp streamers) are flown to symbolize and hope for children's strength, today's bento has koinobori-shaped wieners.

As a bonus, there are little fish mixed in with the veggies.

We have large streamers that we normally fly from the balcony, but this weekend we're heading to Furano in Hokkaido (Japan's northern large island) for a mini trip. According to Yahoo! Weather, next week's highs look to be about as warm as here (20°C; 68°F), but the lows (freezing) are colder [...]

Imagine taking 10 gallons of white and pink blossoms, and forcefully shoving them onto a branch capable of holding at most half that amount, and that's the feeling you currently get from two trees in my neighborhood.

I don't know what kind of trees these are. If they are cherry trees, they're blooming long after all the other cherry trees in this neighborhood.

Update: thanks to Aaron and Andy for identifying them as "yaezakura" or "botanzakura" cherry blossoms.

These blossoms range from almost pure white to a mildly deep, rich pink, often the whole range being found on [...]

The Japanese school year begins in April, and today was the first day for some of the new first-year kids at Anthony's preschool to have their first bento. (It's a big day for them -- see "It's All About The Bento" for the story about Anthony's first bento back when he was a new student last year, and "First Bento of the New Semester" for a mid-term update.)

Anthony's mid-year class started having bentos last week, but on the occasion of the big day for his new schoolmates, I thought I'd post today's bento. It seems Fumie was inspired by [...]

We went for a short drive up to Kibune yesterday, a little area of restaurants and inns nestled in a long, narrow river valley that's been populated for at least 1,300 years. Although I bothered learning the name only yesterday, we've been up that way a number of times lately, with the first few pictures from this blossom & buds post from that area, also passing through on the trip with Kyoto's bridge to nowhere, and not even a month ago, snow and funky icicles.

The snow's all gone, of course, and soon their cherry blossoms will be as well, [...]