Spring is here!

Spring is here, and it's bittersweet this year. I love spring time - the sunshine, blue skies, warm weather, birds chirping, flowers blooming... the time of year we can take off our winter coats and enjoy being outside before it gets brutally hot.

But sadly, this our last spring and cherry blossom season in Japan.

I feel fortunate that we've been able to experience the beautiful Japanese cherry blossoms four seasons in a row. Wow, is this really our fourth spring here? Amazing how quickly time goes by.

It's absolutely stunning here in the spring time, and probably my favorite season in Japan. But as much as I enjoy the beautiful sakura season, I'm ready to go home.

It is unusually warm in Japan right now, so the flowers bloomed a bit early this year. Luckily, I made it back just in time to see the peak. It's fun to look back at prior posts to see what I wrote about in previous years. Here are the links if you also want to revisit them:

2010: Sakura is here!
2011: Hanami
2012: Hanami ~ Cherry Blossoms