strawberry

We took a big drive yesterday to see the sea (Izu Hanto peninsula) and on the way, stopped on the side of the road as a curious tourist to see all about strawberry picking. You simply stop and pay the $12pp and then wait behind the lead car until all the other people come and then they take you to a hot house. Nice and organised Japanese way of doing things. After you park and enter the hot house you get a tray with two compartments. One is full of condensed milk (to dip the strawberries) the other is for the green bits you dont eat. So, this picking game is just to pick and eat on the spot, not to pick and collect and take home...oh yeh right.....

But it was cool fun and we made sure we ate only the big, perfect, sweet, juicy ones (of which there were many, many, toooo many)......

The very big start day of sakura or cherry blossom season is TODAY!!! We have seen many trees that have already been and gone, it also rained very hard for two days last week so many blossoms are gone. BUT, there are so many about to burst and today we will go to search out some of the trees and hopefully get some good photos. The above photos are from my mobile phone. Two weekend trips in a row we have either, forgotten the memory card but bought the camera (twice), run out of battery, or forgotten the camera completely............we dont bother to get mad at each other because what can you do???? There is a lack of photos from the Izu Hanto peninsula but it is beautiful and mde even moreso by the HUGE looming and beautiful shape of snow capped Mt Fuji. It was breathtaking to see it silent and beautiful everytime you turn around...