It is that time of year again! For those of you that live in Vancouver, where I live, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival is coming again starting on April 3-28. It is one of the festivals I really look forward to these past years because it symbolizes the beginning of spring in a very Japanese setting, and I obviously love anything Japan so I'm excited about this every year!

This festival hasn't been around for a very long time, actually. I think it started in 2009 and it skipped a couple years. The first festival I attended was in 2011, and me and my friends went to the Sakura Days Japan Fair in the Van Dusen Gardens. I went with my friends Isabel, James, and Jonathan. Here are some pictures that I took at that time at the fair. In the fair is just basically lots of Japanese activities and lots of stalls of food! We really enjoyed it.

Two years ago, 2012, I attended it with Chris and it was just basically a foodtrip for us. This was one of the few photos I got to take before we stuffed our faces.

And last year, I participated in their volunteer program! I was so psyched to have been picked out! I was in the Sake room and I got to have lots of FREE sake... Err, no. I did not get drunk on shift. I was just closely monitoring the place. There was this peach sake that was just DIVINE and they let us sample it. Of course you had to be 19 and older to sample it (FREE of course). I couldn't get any photos last year because I was volunteering and it was raining at the time so I didn't get to go around much either, but it was super fun! I wanted to brush up on my rusty Japanese. I met some people there but didn't get in touch much. I want to volunteer again this year. I've already submitted an application and I'm just waiting to hear from them. I hope I do get the opportunity again. If any one of you who lives in the Vancouver area and want to know more about the fair, you can go to their website here and learn more about the festival here. There are lots of activities around Vancouver, but sadly I wasn't able to attend anything other than the fair the past two years due to work, but I hope I get to see more this year. I hope some of you could volunteer because it's so much fun! Just check out the volunteer page of the SJDF. They are accepting applications until March 14th.

If you are a Japan enthusiast like me, or just really want to see something different and celebrate spring with a more Asian feel, I encourage you to check out the fair and the different activities of the festival. The fair at the Van Dusen Gardens is on April 5-6. Come volunteer with me or just enjoy the festivities!