Back in Matsumoto: White Day at Alps Park

After Soojeong and I got back from our ten day trip to the island of Kyushu, it wasn't long before it was time for White Day. White Day in Japan is just like Valentine's Day in America, except on White Day the boys buy for the girls (they also have Valentine's Day here where the girls buy for their partner) and it happened this year on the 14th of March. For Valentine's Day Soojeong had done so many sweet things for me; made me chocolates, fixed dinner, and made the entire day wonderful, and I wanted to make White Day just as special for her.

That morning I made bought the ingredients to make chocolate-covered strawberries, a card, and set about working. It took a couple of hours to get everything together, but with the chocolate-covered strawberries cooling in the refrigerator, I set off to buy flowers. I was lucky enough to find Soojeong's favorite flower (Freesia) at a local flower shop for the first time, so I bought it and headed off to get my strawberries. The weather that day was beautiful, and I headed over to the International Dorm to bring her her gifts. To see her smile made my day. We relaxed for a while, and decided to have a picnic lunch at Alps Park. Off we went.

We stopped to buy our lunch, and from there we headed up into the hills. By bike it took about 30 minutes, but we made it there, and set about having a great time. The weather was sunny with just a slight cool breeze. The park was very beautiful and we were able to enjoy the picnic with views of the mountains, trees, and flowers of Nagano Prefecture. There were so many things to do at the park; roller-slides (that we had a great time riding together), zip lines, obstacle courses, a huge rock climbing wall, and a very nice museum with a lookout tower at the top with views of the Japanese Alps. They even had a free zoo there with many different animals. For me, it was a perfect place to spend the day with Soojeong relaxing and playing together.

After we left the park, we had already decided to go out to an Italian restaurant named "Mar de Napoli" for dinner. The restaurant was very beautifully decorated with paintings, mosaics, and lights. Our food was excellent, and the dessert was just as delicious. What a way to spend the day after playing. White Day was so much fun, and it was a day that I will never forget. From the window of my apartment I can see the tower at the park, and I hope that someday we will be able to do it all again.