Sakura Water-Balloon Printing

I spent a couple of years in Japan as a young adult.  I wish I could tell you I am a proficient speaker of the language and wise on all things sushi.  Unfortunately my language skills are now all but extinct and my culinary skills have not been tested for quite some time.  That said, there are are learnings from my time in Japan that have become part of my being and shape the person I am today... even if I can no longer express it in Japanese!!  One of those learnings would be, the appreciation of "beautiful-ness" in the every day...

An obvious manifestation of this is in Japanese culture is 'Hanabi' (Cherry Blossom Viewing Festival) which sees the nation go blossom-crazy every spring!  

Cherry blossoms first bloom in the south of Japan signalling the warming face of spring is starting to smile.  The blossoms typically reach Tokyo in early-April and Hokkaido by mid-May but this varies from year to year.  News broadcasters will report... in-depth ... on progress.  I remember watching a very serious news reporter showing close-ups of a cherry blossom tree in Tokyo and basically apologising to his viewers that the blossoms would likely not arrive in time for the coming weekend.

When the blossoms do arrive... look UP because under the trees shenanigans are likely taking place.  Picnics Japan style... mini-gas BBQs, sheets of blue plastic ground covering (no shoes allowed), enough food and drink to sink a ship!  It's loud, sometimes drunken but certainly everyone is enjoying the blossoming surrounds!

So beautiful, such fun!

So we tried to recreate a little Hanami in our condo grounds today...

I prepared a tree (minus any flowers) during Miss May's sleep and we braved the heat of the afternoon to do some water-balloon printing!  

We used... 

- Large Piece of paper

- Paint (we used silver for the tree and mainly pink for the blossoms)

- Regular balloons with about 1/2 cup of water in each (ie difficult to break)

- Sponges (dabbing pad)

Nanna and I did test this with water-balloons before deciding to use regular balloons (not before we totally drenched ourselves in the kitchen!)

A special shout out to Master A.H. who having been born in Japan, contributed his own special brand of  "beautiful-ness" to our painting!

As usual the kids turned this into a game of their own... because unbreakable water-balloons and a bucket of water is LOADS of fun!!!