Jan came -1-

Finally Jan came from America by herself. She stayed with us for about 5 days here in Utsunomiya.
She is in her 70's. We were really surprised at her power!!!!
Anyway I organized a soft schedule for her.

First I wanted to show Japanese cherry blossoms. The season is almost finished, however, we could see some fully cherry blossoms.
We have this part many cherry blossoms are planted along a road.

 

We took cherry blossoms shower.

She looked happy to see cherry blossoms fully blooming. She loves flowers.

So probably she would be as happy as seeing full of roses or azaleas in Japan. Actually in May we have some beautiful rose gardens.

 

On the other hand Japanese people have a special feeling on cheery blossoms, which is sometimes described " nostalgia". It's difficult to explaining this feeling in another language. I know some of the reasons. One reason is it comes from the short period of blooming. Usually 7 days. Another reason is probably the soft color. (However we have various kinds of cherry blossoms, some one has think pink.)

 

 

And next I took her a western style restaurant. If it is the first visit for foreign guests and they seem to like Japanese food, you should take them to a Japanese restaurant. However they just want to enjoy lunch, I recommend to take them to a western style restaurant. Usually at most of western style restaurant they serve Japanalize --- ( I hope this word makes sense) western dishes.

Can you guess how this black sauce is made?

It's black sesame dressing sauce without oil. She shows curiosity, and she could eat it up.