Cherry unblossoms

Had a hard time deciding whether to use that icon or my Chicago icon.

This year I learned that there is a grove of cherry blossoms in Jackson Park, down by the Museum of Science and Industry, and this year also the Park District started posting a cherry blossom watch the way that D.C. or Japan have. Both D.C. and Japan had their blooms months ago, at the end of March, but Chicago is Chicago. Much like how last night I kicked off one of the four blankets I still have on my bed in my sleep, and then woke up half an hour before my alarm because I was too cold, the cherry blossoms are still closed.

I was originally hoping to have gone to down to the park for hanami last weekend, but with no update on the Park District website I thought it would be too risky to make my way all the way down to Hyde Park with no guarantee that the blossoms would bloom, and it looks like that was the right decision. Though now, with ACEN coming up, are they going to be in bloom next weekend and I'll have to run back from the con, drop off everything, and then run down to Jackson Park? I did take Monday off too, though that's because there's a Cowboy Bebop popup event Sunday night...

Might have another extremely busy weekend coming up. 🌸

Eulogy for a net cafe

I just found this article about the decline of the net cafe on the Japan Times. Now that everyone has a smartphone and wifi is much more common, needing to go to a net cafe for connectivity isn't something people need to do. Even travelers just buy pocket wifi the way I did on my last trip to Japan and use their own phones.

I'v been to a manga cafe in Hiroshima City once, when the bus back from Mt. Fuji arrived after the last train and friend was worried about gossip if she put me up for the night, and it was lovely. ¥800 for the night, all the manga I could(n't) read, and a place to plug in my phone and a computer to surf the web. But there wasn't any sense of community there the way the author describes.

That was 2011. I wonder what they're like now?