Last night I went to the gym for the first time since I went back to California last December.

That’s right, three months ago. I had been planning to start up again when I got back in January, but I was so busy at work that I couldn’t justify paying the monthly membership fee if I was wasn’t going to be able to leave the office early enough to go during the week. Believe it or not, a “regular” gym membership in Tokyo (meaning no access time restrictions) generally runs about US$100 per month (!). Utterly ridiculous, no doubt, but they don’t call Tokyo the most expensive city in the world for nothing.

However, seeing as I’m going to be getting married later this year, I figured I’d better try to put on a bit more muscle (okay — a lot more) so I can hopefully look slightly less scrawny in the wedding photos. Skinny white boy genes are a cruel, cruel curse.

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Here are a few more photos from my visit to Shinjuku Gyoen last spring. Yes, I know, pictures of sakura are totally clichéd and played out . . . but they looked so nice that day, I couldn’t resist pretending that I actually know how to operate a camera.