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A Retired Couple’s Holiday in Japan: From
“Hanami” 
Plan to“Blackberry Sitter” Reality
A picture of a kind of 
sakura
tree which started to loom earlier at the neighbor’s houseyard but it was not an indication of the usual occurrence of the awaited cherry blossomtime (Gany’s photograph, 10 March 2010)
-------
The
 Hanami 
Nostalgia on Silver Jubilee Visit:
After retirement from 46 years of government civil services in a Technical Domain Ministry, the first thing popped up in mymind was to enjoy a long holiday with my wife abroad. Considering several alternatives,we eventually decided to have our holiday in Japan since we are happened to have our sonwith his wife and his only one daughter staying in this country, working as a journalist inthe national radio broadcasting company. So we could avoid the costly expenses on lodgingand accommodation. We then made a systematic preparation to stay one month at the beginning of Spring intended to relax while enjoying the
“hanami”
outing tradition of Japanese people, which is making a family picnic while relaxing on
“tatami”
traditional plaited mat under the shadow of the “
 sakura”
cherry blossom facilitated with series of meal boxes of Japanese foods and beverages. I recalled my first unforgettable visit toJapan, enjoyed the
hanami
outing, despite that the event had already happened more than25 years ago and ever since became my silver jubilee nostalgia. I and my wife thereforeimagined that our 
hanami
silver jubilee obsession in this occasion would become a mostenjoyable and glamorous post retirement event.Several months before deciding the visit, I made conformation with my Japanesecolleague whom I met at a conference in New Delhi, about the most plausible time for 
 
 sakura
cherry blossom occurrence in Japan this year. Based upon the first hand informationfrom this Tokyo dweller’s colleague of mine, then we decided to travel at the beginning of March, despite the warning from some of my relatives who stay in Japan that there is a possibility of having an unusual climate this year due to the impact of climate change or  perhaps other causes, among others they stated the evidence of unusual snow fall in Tokyo,and the one digit temperature at the end of February. Although we have the last minuteinformation from our son that the snow was still fallen a couple of days before our departure, then we can hardly rectify our schedule, since our flight had already confirmed amonth earlier.Prior to the touch down, of our aircraft at Narita International Airport of Tokyo, mywife and I was a bit released to hear the pilot announcement that the temperature outsidethe aircraft had come up to 15 degrees Centigrade. Given that information, my wife wasseemingly quite confidence to step down from the escalator, having our experience of twodigits sub zero decrees temperature in Winnipeg during our five years stay in this notorious North American climate. It became a little bit of problem, having the fact that our flightarrival was several minutes late, then we have to catch up the next hour scheduledlimousine to the city terminal, waiting at the platform. During an hour waiting, we becameslightly discouraged again because we noticed that the temperature was quickly descendedto one digit again, followed by the approaching spots of rainfall. Under such unfriendlyweather condition, we were almost felt a sleep at the convenient limousine bus and onlynoticed our arrival to the city terminal about an hour later after the automatic machineannounced our final destination. We were then leaved the bus to catch a taxi to our son’sapartment with the feeling of exhausted after more than ten hours traveling from Jakarta.We arrived at our son’s apartment in Meguro District of Tokyo almost noon, wherewe found that our daughter in law had already prepared a set of Japanese cuisine for lunch,which we immediately enjoyed very much under the chilly temperature of the Japanesestile apartment. I only aware after waking up later at 6 pm that I had been overslept myself at the
tatami
Japanese plaited mat at the guest room, immediately after having a heavyJapanese cuisine lunch. Similar situation experienced by my wife, while my son and mydaughter in law were respectfully reluctant to wake me up but give us pillow and blanket asthey saw our exhausting but relaxing condition to enjoy exceptionally sound sleep whilelying at the Japanese mat of the guest room, without even changing our dress.
Blessing in Disguise while Waiting for
 Sakura
Cherry Blossom:
As the time passed by,we do nor aware that we have already stayed in Tokyo for almost half a month when thisarticle was written, however our initial itinerary had not come to the
 sakura
cherry blossom’s
hanami
matter, as we fully understood, based upon information we obtained previously, that the mass cherry blossom would normally come into being at the third week of March, despite that some of the cherry types have already bloomed unusually earlier.Some trees have yet bloomed but the flowers have been sprouting. Others have already blooming at the initial stage, as we saw at the neighbors’ house yard on our ways to themosque for Friday prayer.However, the fact that during the days since our arrival have been so unfriendly,that we could only went out for sight seeing and shopping for two lovely days and twoFriday’s sunny days, which we felt like the most heart felt annoyance. This was consideredso inconvenience as our planned itinerary for the first and the second week stay in Tokyo
 
were not fully met. The weather condition were so unusual that we could not went out tospent the time for shopping and sight seeing, but only stay at home to wait the friendlyweather for going out. Surprisingly, that we have an effective time killing activity that hadnot been well anticipated before. Our mobile blackberry gadgets which we brought fromIndonesia under the off condition, to avoid over exceeding charge for roaming when wereturned home, were set by my son on the trial and error basis, expecting for internetconnection by using Wi Fi hardware. Thanks God, the trial efforts of my son weresuccessful, and we are able to make Blackberry internet communication by utilizing theinternet access from our provider in Indonesia without necessary to pay for the highlyaffordable roaming charges. Since then we can enjoy the entire waiting time for outer friendly weather condition in terms of “blackberry-sitter” to access our E-mail, Face-book and Twitter internet, even browsing and chatting, VoIp communication media. Theseactivities, in fact, are so absorbing that often make us reluctant to go out even if the weather condition have already become conducive enough to perform our sight seeing and shoppingitinerary. Indeed, all of sudden, we felt of being absorbed by the blackberry-sitter’s activity,simultaneously with all members of the household (my son, daughter in law, granddaughter, my wife and myself), at any time when we are not sleeping.
 The picture illustrating the grandpa (left), grand daughter (center) and grandma (right)are being absorbed by blackberry sitter’s activity, at an early morning of Satuday(Gany’s Photograph 12
th
March ’10)
Since the surprised invention of this blessing in disguise enjoyment, we are reallyamazing to feel like being at home with all the unlimited communication activities with allof our friends and relatives back home. Some time we are so absorbing that we do notaware that we are being at another country with a distance of nine hours flight. We oftenstartled from our enjoyment, only when our daughter in law asks us to have our routinemeals.Despite of this absorbing enjoyment, we, of course are still looking forward toenjoying the Silver Jubilee Nostalgia on the
 sakura
cherry blossom’s
hanami
occasion. Wehighly expect that the fully awaited nostalgia will become materialized within theremaining two weeks of our time in Japan.
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