I’m on a trip to Kishiwada Castle to meet Mayana and Maryia for Hanami again. They have a couple of Couchsurfers from Brazil, Renan and Maria. Finally Sakura, the cherry blossom, has fully started. We get food and a lot of alcohol from the supermarket and do Hanami, which means watching the Sakura and drink Sake.
This place was an excellent choice, because it offers a pretty park in front of a very Japanese castle with a lot of blooming cherry trees. Soon we are the only ones, because it starts raining. That doesn’t stop us and enjoying ourselves in the rain while we get drunk just gives us a festival feeling.
Later, Manaya drives all of us back to Kyoto. They offer me to stay with them again, but my flight leaves early and we agree to go to dinner and Karaoke and stay up all night until I leave.
With me I bring a lot of memories about a fascinating country that is much like its stereotypes
on one hand, on the other hand it has been a big surprise how open and hospital the people were in the countryside as well as in the middle of the biggest city.
