Hanami Party!!!

Today was a good day.
I'm feeling much better about the next few weeks, and I really enjoyed spending some time doing exactly what I wanted today.

After what was actually a pretty good night’s sleep in the bakery car park (apart from the shrine next door, which I think had their equivalent of choir practice at around 7 a.m.), I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to hit the road towards Nara. I decided not to bother with the waterfalls, as they were actually in the wrong direction from Kyoto — which is where I’m vaguely planning to spend some time towards the end of the week.

I went to a place called Café CoCo for breakfast — I think it’s a chain, but it was fairly decent inside. Unfortunately, I arrived at 10:04 and their breakfast menu stops at 10. Looking back, I’m not exactly sure what drove me to order the spaghetti bolognese, but maybe I’m missing Western food more than I thought. Still, a good high-protein breakfast and a couple of coffees from the free refill machine later, and I was on my way.

The drive was a real treat — a lovely, winding mountain road with very few other cars. My destination for the day was Mount Yoshino, which I’d read is one of the best places in Japan to see cherry blossom, and I have to say it didn’t disappoint. I started spotting cherry trees about 30 minutes away, around a place called Uda Sasagaku, where I also stopped at a 7-Eleven for lunch. The traffic started getting heavier the closer I got to Yoshino, and I began to realise I might not be the only one hoping for an unobstructed view of the cherry blossom valley.

When I arrived, it was really busy — people were paying 2,000 yen just to leave their cars an hour-and-a-half’s walk from the viewing area I was aiming for. Being the silly foreigner I am, I just kept driving, telling myself there must still be space closer to the top of the mountain. And, to my amazement, after another 20 minutes of driving, I did find a layby to leave the car in. I think it was only empty because no Japanese person would dream of parking outside an allocated space.

From there, it was a beautiful 20-minute walk through a pine forest to the viewing area, which offered stunning views of the valley below — and surprisingly, it wasn’t all that busy. I took loads of content on the way up, so I’m hoping to put a video together tomorrow showing it in a bit more detail, but I’ve included a few snaps below as a teaser.

After sitting in the same (equally bad) traffic to get back down the hill, I made it back onto the road towards Nara city. (I think it’s a city? It’s all a bit strange — it feels sort of attached to both Kyoto and Osaka.)

Whilst driving along, I saw a sign advertising a golf driving range up ahead and thought, why not? So I pulled in and tried out “Gorufu o shitai desu” on the staff — which went down a treat. After being led by three staff members to two separate machines (one for paying for the booth and one for hiring clubs), I was all set. The balls magically appeared on the tee from beneath the carpet, and you could adjust the tee height by the millimetre using a small screen in the booth. That, combined with the ball-tracking system, made for a far better experience than you’d get anywhere in the UK — even Topgolf. After 108 balls and a blister forming on my hand, I jumped back in the car and continued on towards Nara.

I’m writing this from a car park halfway to Nara, as I wanted to get it all down before I forget any details. I’m also planning to visit a couple of bars tonight — staying sober, though, as I need a detox after four fairly alcohol-heavy months in Niseko.

Current plan for tomorrow:

• Book tickets for the Osaka Expo
• Book flights to Okinawa
• Move to a new spot — ideally somewhere with direct train access to Osaka, so I can spend a few days there.

Also I should have pointed out that the title of this post is in reference to Hanami, which is the act of viewing the cherry blossom and usually involves lots of drinking on a picnic rug (no idea what the Japanese word for that is) under said cherry blossom.