Cherry Blossom Festival in Shimokawa

	There aren't all that many cherry trees this far north, so no dining under them for us. Instead we took over a baseball field and had a barbeque.
	Another view
	For games, They put bean-filled bread onto this catapult.
	Here's a blinding-white Greer trying to catch the bread in his net.
	And here's an action shot of me doing the same. I ended up winning this event, and the prize - far from being a box of tissue paper which I usually expect - was an iPod Shuffle! I didn't have a real need for it as the iPod Steussy gave me for graduation (I reiterate, you rock Steussy!) is still running fine, and as-yet mp3-player-less Greer was so close, so I passed my windfall on to him.
	Here's Heather, Greer, and Yumi (Greer's girlfriend) out for a round of park golf. I know I've mentioned this game somewhere before. It's actually quite fun without all the stress of real golf, but not so corny as mini golf.
	The park golf course.
	Oh, this is all taking place in Great Wall Park in Shimokawa - it actually has a miniature (2km) Great Wall running around it. And yes, they did get permission from China to do this.
	The werid tower in the park -more from that later.
	Greer steps up to the... tee.
	Next is Yumi.
	Then Heather.
	And finally me.
	I love this clock.
	Here's that tower again.
	And the entrance to the park, with Chinese, Japanese, and Canadian flags flying over it. Apparently Shimokawa's sister city is in Canada.
	This picture was taken from the top of the tower.
	The town of Shimokawa.
	A close up of one of the cherry trees.
	The base of the tower from the top.
	The park.
	The park...ing lot
	Another picture of Heather... 's shadow on the tower.
	The flags.
	A closer view of Shimokawa.

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