{"id":10403,"date":"2016-03-19T16:44:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T20:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=10403"},"modified":"2016-04-02T10:04:35","modified_gmt":"2016-04-02T14:04:35","slug":"sakura-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=10403","title":{"rendered":"Sakura Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Saturday, March 19, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sakura is the name of the Japanese cherry trees and they are <i>almost <\/i>in bloom this week. I can see pale colors of blossoms on many trees which are on the verge of opening as we walk around Tokyo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br \/>\n<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8822.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10680\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10680\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8822.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8822\" width=\"293\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Sakura Festival is an important time of year throughout Japan. It&#8217;s a season of excited anticipation and hope for good times and happiness for the coming year. Pink signs were everywhere brightening Tokyo with color. Lanterns were hanging in every park for evening strolls and picnics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8841.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10710\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10710\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8841.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8841\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We checked out of the New Otani Hotel (highly recommended!) and walked to the Toyku Stay Yotsuya Hotel to join the\u00a0Overseas Adventure Travel tour group to see the rest of Japan during the next two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8846.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10711\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10711\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8846.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8846\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today was a cool rainy spring day so, after we left our luggage in the new hotel, we took the JR train to Ueno Park to visit the Tokyo National Museum to see traditional Japanese art.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4121.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10712\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10712\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4121.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_4121\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4123.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10713\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-10713\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4123.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_4123\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4118.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10714\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10714\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4118.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_4118\" width=\"400\" height=\"252\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4095.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10715\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10715\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4095.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_4095\" width=\"400\" height=\"242\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4098.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10716\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-10716\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4098.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_4098\" width=\"278\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nAfterwards we stopped in a cafe down the street from the museum and discovered &#8220;Japanese sweet milk tea&#8221; which was warming and delicious.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4120.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10717\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10717\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_4120.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_4120\" width=\"400\" height=\"265\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We took the train back to the new hotel. \u00a0Japanese people work very long hours so many of the people, of all ages, were sleeping on the train.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8847.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10718\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10718\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8847.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8847\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After we rested in the hotel, we ventured out to look for a restaurant for dinner.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8848.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10719\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10719\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8848.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8848\" width=\"400\" height=\"286\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8853-2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10721\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-10721\" src=\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8853-2.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8853-2\" width=\"316\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, March 19, 2016 Sakura is the name of the Japanese cherry trees and they are almost in bloom this week. I can see pale colors of blossoms on many trees which are on the verge of opening as we walk around Tokyo.\u00a0 The Sakura Festival is an important time of year throughout Japan. It&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10403"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10723,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10403\/revisions\/10723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}