They are pleased to inform us

My mother called at 2:00 this morning, interrupting sleep and our plans for a day trip today to Kurashiki, to inform me that I have been accepted to the graduate program I've been dreaming of for about two years now. So that is the good good news, and I'm quite blown over by it.

Yesterday was a busy day. We finished our wedding invitations and posted most of them (so watch your mailboxes. You just could be an invitee!) We went to pick up the porcelain Hello Kitty in a kimono that I've been lusting after for months, and ran other errands. It was a beautiful day, and I was outdoors with just a hoodie for warmth. We went to Himeji castle where sakura (cherry blossom) season is just about upon us. The cherry blossoms are only buds at the moment, but lanterns deck the castle grounds, and it's lousy with tourists. Next week it will be madness, acres jammed with drunken Japanese people under the blossoms with portable karaoke machines and copious sake. Hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties) is one of the most remarkable experiences I have had here and it's wonderful to be here and experience it again. I haven't been following the daily Sakura report (absolutely a weather report with flowers on the map rather than sunshine and rainclouds) on the Japanese news (it takes a mighty constitution to stomach the Japanese news), but apparently they're due in a matter of days. And yesterday I lay down on the grass, and watched the blue sky turn above me, and after any long winter that's quite a formidable experience. Anyway, we went to the gym after that. I am getting better at the gym, since the first day where I couldn't read the changeroom signs and didn't know which one to go into and cried. And went out to the izakaya last night with friends from work. I didn't drink as my tuberculosis is acting up, but we ate so much and had a wonderful time. Always the double mark of a good evening.