Spring has been sighted!

I am so happy that we had a mild winter in Osaka this year. Nevertheless, I am overjoyed to find the first cherry blossoms blooming already. It's a sure sign of warmer weather to come (and unfortunately, of allergy season!).

It was a beautiful sunny day at the park, and the few trees in bloom made for a beautiful splash of color among all the greenery.

It is lovely to be able to enjoy Hanami one more time in Japan before I leave!

Cosplay!

(Viewing, not participating in) :P

Ooops, so I just realized that months have passed since I last wrote. My time in Japan is coming to an end soon, so I promise to write and update more! I have lots of travel in my near future, but in the meantime, I will try to cram in a few more things in this crazy lovely country.

Of course I can't leave Japan without viewing one of its most notorious pastimes: cosplay! Every year in Osaka, thousands of people dress up as their favorite anime/video game character for this one day of fun. It was cool to see the details that went into all the costumes, and I was pleasantly surprised to recognize some of them!

I can't believe I actually recognized this! Trio from Cardcaptor Sakura!

No idea what this one is, but looks really cool.

A character from a really popular girls' anime series,
Pretty Cure.

Yuna, from Final Fantasy X! Not a minute later, I saw a
guy in a Tidus costume one block away. I wonder if he
was looking for Yuna? :)

This looked super familiar. I want to say a character
from Tenchi Muyo??

Can you believe that people actually drive around in cars with these decals?

Yokai yokai yokaaaaaiiii watch ee ee!

The enemy has been spotted! Where's Solid Snake?? Dressed up as this
cute little girl?

Oh, here he is. Silly Snake, you don't fit in that box!

I wonder what anime these girls are from? 

Lightning and Vanille, from Final Fantasy XIII. The
costumes look really good!

A snapshot from the other side of things; I was standing behind a
 very popular cosplay girl. Slightly creepy, no?

Cammie, from Street Fighter

So kawaii!

Awwww! It's Cloud! And Aerith! (Even though we all know that Aerith's
true love really is Zack Fair.)

Don't know what anime she is from, but she is
rocking the outfit!

Ness looks like he lost a lot of weight, maybe he's homesick?
Where is Poo??

This was a crazy event, spanning multiple blocks and consisting of huge crowds. It eventually got tiring to be fighting through the streets, but I'm sure there were even more interesting and cool costumes to be found. This was like the Halloween parade in New York, but even better because all the costumes looked to be really well-made. I'm glad I got to see all this!