What is the difference between “cherry” and “sakura”? The word “cherry” in English makes me think of fruit. Black cherries are sweet and easy to eat. Cherry pie is made with tart cherries and sugar and is delicious hot. Another popular dessert is cherry ice cream. When I heard the word “Sakura,” I used to think of trees and flowers. These days, however, I think of sweets. “Sakura mochi” is one of my favorite sweets. It is made with sticky rice, sweet beans, and a salty cherry leaf. It doesn’t taste anything like American cherry desserts. There are many other sakura-flavored sweets on sale now. My wife and daughter even found sakura-flavored rice balls on sticks (“dango”) and maple leaf-shaped cakes with bean filling (“momiji-manju”).

We had such a warm winter this year that I was sure the cherry blossoms would come out early. Then suddenly, in the middle of March, it got much colder. The high temperature went below 10 degrees and the low temperature went below 1 degree in Nagoya. It was winter again! We hardly saw the sun, and it kept on raining. Then, a week ago, the sun finally came out. The temperature went above 20 degrees. This is the kind of weather cherry trees were waiting for. They started blooming, and people started coming out for picnics. Spring is here at last!

On Friday, the first regular baseball games of the season began in Japan. The baseball season has also started in the U.S. Baseball fans in both countries are excited because they can watch their favorite players in action. There were pre-season games last month, but the results of those games weren’t important. My favorite team, the Chunichi Dragons, were doing very well then, but now they are in last place. At the top of list in the Central League are the Yakult Swallows. They have won two games and tied one. At the top of the Pacific League list are three teams including the Softbank Hawks. They have won two games and lost one. So far, the Dragons haven’t won any regular games, but it’s still early in the season. Go Dragons!

My daughter and her American friend went to Hiroshima over the weekend. They are “foodies,” people who love food, and they know that Hiroshima is famous for oysters. They ate a lot of oysters. In fact, they ate 50 oysters each! They got so sick that they had to go to the hospital. My daughter’s friend has to go back to the U.S. tomorrow, so I drove down from Nagoya to Hiroshima to pick them up. When I got there, the doctor said that they had to stay in the hospital for one week! What a foolish way to end a vacation! By the way, do you know what day it is today? It’s April Fool’s Day! They are perfectly okay!

My younger daughter is back in Japan for the first time in six years. The last time she came to Japan was in 2018, before the pandemic. She is here with an American friend, and they are traveling around Japan together. They spent the first few days in Tokyo, and now they are in Nagoya. After several days of rain, the sun has finally come out. I decided to take them into the mountains because I wanted to show them that Japan is more than just big cities. We visited Tsumago and Magome, two old post towns from the Edo period. The area is famous for chestnuts, and every time they saw chestnut sweets, they had to eat them.