Springtime in Aomori

I may not have explained before, but school festivals are considered "work" for teachers and students. After the undoukai, the kids and teachers get to take a day off sometime in the next week. We ALTs, however, are not officially "teachers" and showed up at the sports festivals voluntarily, so I did not get the luxury of having a day off (let alone 4 days for all of the ones I went to). My boss decided it was only fair to give the ALTs four hours off one day to even the odds.

I decided to take my 4 hours off on a Friday afternoon when I didn't have classes. After lunch, I biked home and basked in the glory of the warm sun. I then noticed all the beautiful flowers blooming around me, and decided to grab my camera and head back out for another bike ride. Here are the photo gems I captured on my ride, along with others from a previous ride:

Oh, Japan. You pour snow on me for 5 months, and make me cower in your cold, bleak wilderness underneath bare, craggy tree limbs. Then, in the span of a week or two, you bombard me with all this overwhelming beauty and vivid color. I now understand why Japanese people have so much pride in their distinct four seasons; they are truly formidable, especially up here in the wild north.

Thanks for reading! Next time, I get down and dirty in some rice fields.