Hanami party at yoyogi koen

Mr. D thought a hanami party was in order before he jetted off last Tuesday. He wanted to be part of the fun because the sakuras will be gone by the time he returns two weeks later.

To do a bit of branding for his company, I packed an Australian picnic — cold meats, cheese, crackers, vegetable strips, olives, chocolate biccies, wine, beer and champagne. I also threw in my precious kangie soft toy as the night’s mascot (yeah that’s him holding the sprig of sakura — Nakamura plucked this off the tree, passed it to the kangaroo to give to me).



He could only confirm the picnic by 3pm that day so I did a whirlwind shopping spree in Akasaka in one hour. I picked up cheap 100 yen towels for us to sit down. In a city like Tokyo, or at least the businessy area we live in, it’s near impossible to look for rugged gear or cheap knick knacks for the house. Thank god I stumbled upon a 100 yen shop run by an Indian family two streets away.

So it was Nakamura, the kangaroo and me. We chatted and laughed as the sun set. We chose a pretty spot in a big grassy expanse of other picnickers and sakura trees. Unfortunately, we plonked ourselves down next to the train track mesh. We didn’t hear the loud clanker of the trains passing what must’ve been yoyogi station till we spread out the food. Other than that, it was an ideal spot.

I can’t remember much except that I thought it was a good bonding session for Nakamura and Mr.D. Nakamura tends to use grandiose language, but I think it’s probably just the foreign language thing: “Astro san, we would like to see our company succeed, so please, continue to support Mr.D”, “my wife and I are very different — she’s very primitive”, “thank you so much for your kindness”…he’s a scream of a character. He often apologises for his weak grasp of English: “My English is very bad, so if you see me smiling, it does not mean I understand what you are saying.”

By 830pm, the park turned extremely chilly so we packed up and went home. My first hanami party was quiet but I had a lot of fun. I’ll be attending a bigger one this Sunday. Stay tuned.