Well, it’s been a pretty great week here in Japan! The cherry blossoms are in full swing, the new school year is starting, and there’s a warm spring feeling in the air. It’s a beautiful time to be in the land of the rising sun!

I haven’t done a round-up for a couple weeks, but now that I’m back in the swing of things, I thought I should get back in the habit! In case you missed any posts recently:

On Sunday I shared our recent excursion in Ueno, which has gone Panda-crazy in celebration of the Zoo’s newest residents.

On Monday I discussed one of my favorite Japanesey desserts, Honey Toast. Glorious and ridiculous, and every time I look at the picture I start craving it!

On Tuesday, I talked about the end of Smart.fm, which had been my favorite study tool for learning Japanese. The biggest question now is, what to replace it with?

Wednesday saw the most popular post of the week, with the crazy commercial for the Korean rice wine, にっこりマッコリ. We actually got to try some at the Hanami party this weekend, and it was nice enough? Quite sweet, and a bit thick. I’m not a huge sake fan, but perhaps if you like rice wine, especially sweet variations, this might be the thing for you!

Thursday I posted about Monkey Majik and their new video with footage from some of the areas affected by the recent natural disasters. It’s pretty intense stuff, and the song is beautiful too.

Friday was, of course, the Engrish of the week. I’m always dreaming in the Sponge Cake!

Finally, yesterday I posted one of my favorite pictures recently, of a little rose at lunch the other day.

Outside of Super Happy Awesome, some of my favorite posts included this collection of Catfish woodblock prints over on Pink Tentacle as well as this article about the Ancient Stone Warnings in Tsunami-prone areas (both were mentioned on Tokyo Bounce this week as well!)

Finally, one of the best things happened on Friday–Just Another Day in Japan has started a new “Friendship Friday” series and kicked it off with a spotlight on Super Happy Awesome. How cool is that? JADIJ is one of my favorite Japan blogs, and we were really honored to be chosen for the first entry in this new series.  You should definitely go check them out!