forget april in paris...

sakura(cherry) blossoms everywhere. they have these parties(hanami), where they go to the park and sit under these beautiful trees and drink and eat, play music, whatever. went to fujinomiya to visit tomo. he is a really brilliant artist who studied and lived in philly for something like ten years. tomo has some great work at the fleisher ollman gallery. anyhoo, had a blast in his hometown. woke up at 6:30 for surfing, no waves. breakfast with beer and sake instead. went to the jurong birdpark. unbelievable. saw nearly a hundred owls. most of them were a couple feet away, without cages. went to driving range at base of fuji-san. had a couple asahi super-drys. drove golf balls? okinomiyaki and squid yakisoba at some really tiny restaurant. i think the woman cooking the food lived there. a few more super dry pounders. ready for nap. went to mt. fujis main temple. many sakura there. washed my hands in temple water, gave them some money, then did this prayer/clap kind if thing? off to the onsen. many different kind of pools and springs here. really relaxing. take shower. get into hot spring or sauna. just chill. went to grocery store to get pizza making ingredients(couldnt read a damn thing). went to the japanese bar(izakaya). ate too much, drank more beer and sake. then this great whisky bar. they play good blues music. drank jim beam rye. went home to make pizza dough......