We headed North to Japan for the cherry blossom season and stops at 5 new ports.  On the way up, we passed a pod of whales and I caught a few shots of one breaching.

 

Sado Island was chosen by Japan’s rulers as a place of exile for rivals in the eighth century.  Now it is noted for the Kodo Cultural Foundation that trains students in Taiko drumming.  Young adults live a spartan life, vowing celibacy, and train for hours every day on beautiful hand-made drums of all sizes.  They travel the world doing shows including at the Olympics and the World Cup.  We got to see a demo by two of the students and try the drums ourselves.  A sow by the whole troupe must be amazing and if you watch the video, you’ll understand why they’ve got abs of steel!

A one minute video of two of the students:

In Tokyo, friends Ric and Lorraine joined us for a couple of weeks.  Ric loves Japanese gardens so we joined a couple of garden tours.  Apparently, a Japanese garden has 5 elements: evergreen trees, water, lanterns, rocks and moss – no flowers.  Sometimes these parks and gardens are developed over hundreds of years, but I’m sorry Ric, no flowers (or veggies), no garden in my book.

And as for the cherry blossoms, the weather was often gray or rainy.  And thousands of people flock to the parks or walks with cherry trees and have the equivalent of “tailgate parties” making those idyllic photos of blossoms over empty walks a bit hard to get.

Debra loves almost all Asian food, so we enjoyed taking Ric and Lorraine thru sushi, Kobe beef, Ramen noodles, and the markets.

A highlight of our Tokyo stop was a trip to the Joker Bar, a tiny room where the bartenders perform amazing magic right in front of you.  We’ve been before, but it was fun to take a number of friends.  I was surprised that they let me video.

 Take a look: