Konnichi wa Fujiyoshida

I bit belated of a Hello to my new town, or rather, city but here it is. We were off to a rocky start with some super cold days and lots of rain but it seems we have our footing now. Met with my new schools and while much bigger, I think we have hit it off. This year I only have two compared to the seven I have last year. And it's kinda nice to have more than one grocery and clothing store to choose from. Here are a few pictures from my phone of my new house, school and that magnificent mountain.

I've also been able to go on lots of little little adventures about town as the sakura blooms early and the warm days freckle the cold ones. I went to my favourite little shrine on a windy day that turned into a really cool rainstorm. There was sun and blue skies all around except this storm cloud overhead which showered on me in the whipping torrents of rain like a dragon god's rage. it was pretty awesome. And then it was blue skies again as quickly as the storm came up.

 

 

Fujiyoshida is also good at night. Something Otsuki kinda lacked unless you wanted to eat, which we often did. So one evening as a sat in my apartment I decided that a little adventure was in order. So, I went to another of my favourite shrines, the one on the hill with the pagoda to see the sakura with lanterns.

A third adventure took me to the north end of Kawaguchiko to try and get Fuji framed in sakura. It was  mostly a success but the blossoms haven't fully bloomed this year due to the warm weeks we had which abruptly turned cold... still made for some nice pictures.

I have apparently been exercising my camera a lot since moving here for I have a few more to show off to my older self who may have forgotten how beautiful this country was and how lucky I am to live here. I revisited the pagoda shrine again the week after the lantern to find most of the sakura was falling (even before fully blooming) and took some pictures then. Later, with the other Sarah, we went to Oshino and I was pleasantly surprised to find the long green banks of the river by the ponds was a bloom with sakura and daffodils!

 

 

And so, it had been quite easy to settle in, after some minor altercations with misfortune, when I live in such an amazing prefecture and especially Fujiyoshida which is always lovely for it's in the shadow of Mt. Fuji!