I mentioned in the Tokyo article that we found a place to stay on AirBnB with a nice woman named Senae.  We stayed at her home near Yoga station on the outskirts  of Tokyo and we had some great conversations as she was in the process of studying English.  One of the really cool things that we did in the area was have a picnic under the cherry blossoms in the local koen (park).  Because it was a weekday, the park was filled with mothers and children.  I took my flash and softbox along and had a great time taking portraits.

One really interesting observation was Amanda was worried about leaving her purse behind as we moved from tree to tree, but Senae said not to worry about it because nobody would ever steal something here.  It turned out to be completely true. After some hesitation she left her purse near our picnic setup and we walked around the park and when we returned, it was exactly as we left it.  Later, I even heard stories about people dropping money in the streets, and having it turned into the police station.  Apparently if nobody claims it in 24 hours than the person that turned it in can keep it.