Beautiful Blossoms

Today was more of a slow day, a nice break from the pace we've been keeping since arriving here.  Unfortunately, almost all of us have some sort of cold or bug that we brought back from Ishinomaki.  It's making things a bit miserable, but at least we have some down time here. 

Michaela, Benjamin, and Johanna went to the library for their Japanese class in the morning.  I walked down with them and then made my way to the drugstore.  I tried to explain in my broken Japanese the symptoms that we were having and tried to find something like Airborne that would help us nip some of this in the bud.  I can get by in Japanese, but when I have to start using a range of vocabulary that includes words such as mucus (!) things can get interesting!  I came away with what I think is a B-C-Zinc complex and some cough drops (although their literal translation of cough drops is "throat candy".  No, I don't want candy...oh, okay, it has menthol...must be what we need, but why would I ever need to know "menthol" in Japanese...).  The boys and Josiah helped Grandpa get some more things cleaned up in the yard.  And Michaela and I cooked dinner for the ten of us. 

Spring in Japan is so beautiful....first are the early plum blossoms, then the regular cherry blossoms, and now the double cherry trees are all in bloom.  Dad and I took a quick drive around the neighborhood to capture a few pictures and ooh and aah.