An afternoon at Shinjuku Gyoen Garden

Rob usually works on public holidays, but on Monday, a national holiday in Japan for the vernal (spring) equinox, he made the spontaneous decision to take the day off. It was a lovely spring day, and we headed out to Shinjuku Gyoen to enjoy the blue skies and calm weather. Honey took a couple of hours off work to join us since she hasn't been to this park before. We saw a couple of trees full of pink peach blossoms (or are they plum blossoms?), and needless to say, there were large crowds of people surrounding these trees taking photos. It's a sign that the highly-anticipated cherry blossoms will soon follow suit, and there were many sakura trees at this park with small flower buds that may bloom in a few weeks time.

Zak was a lot more apprehensive about flowers than last year:

We were running short on time, and since I'd been to this park before, I spent some time on the grass with Zak while Honey and Rob did a quick tour of half the grounds. During that half hour, Zak launched into a few series of fantastic (but incomprehensible) monologues, complete with animated expressions which were hilarious to watch. Kids are such a delight, aren't they?

This trip into Shinjuku reminded me why I really dislike navigating around the station, compounded further by how difficult it is to get around inside this maze of a station with a pram. In fact, I dislike the area so much that the last time I was in Shinjuku was almost two years ago, when Zak was still a little heartbeat in my belly. I will avoid this place if I can help it.