As spring makes its way to the north of Japan, it leaves in its wake the short-lived blossoms of sakura (cherry trees), which in turn spark the will of the Japanese to eat and drink outside, beneath the splendid sea of pink. This tradition is known as ohanami, "flower viewing". Some Japanese are apparently so wild about it that they actually follow the blossoms' migration from south to north, like Deadheads into bud of a different sort. Most folks, however, seem to be in it mostly for the drinking, so when the tour finally reached Sapporo last week, we fit right in.

Pretty!

Hard-core fans.

After a few token glances at the pretty flowers, it was down to business with a rousing game of Stump. Stump was introduced to us by Ben. Stump is a drinking game involving 1) a stump, 2) nails, and 3) a hammer. As with most things involving Ben, Stump is clearly a recipe for disaster.

Each player has one nail, which is initially pounded into the log far enough to be stable, like so.

The goal is to pound other players' nails into the stump completely before yours suffers the same fate. A completely pounded nail is defined as one whose head is entirely level with or beneath the stump. Any time your nail is struck, you drink. Pounding is the tricky bit. Rather than simply giving a nail a whack, you must flip the hammer into the air, let it make at least one full rotation, then catch it by the handle and attempt to strike a nail. Making a normal hammering motion and interrupting the hammer's descent, known as "cocking", is forbidden. It's actually very difficult to avoid doing this, and only Tim seemed to get the hang of it, as seen in this video (4.3MB). (Sorry, you'll have to turn your head or monitor 90 degrees until I either find a way to rotate videos or learn to not shoot them vertically.) Mark displays a degree of cocking here (3.5MB), but the unquestioned cocking champion was Brendan (3.4MB), hardly surprising, given his startling resemblance to the Unabomber (his girlfriend Seiko is clearly terrified).

For those still stranded in modemland, here are two pity still shots to keep you occupied while the videos download.

Evan, looking sharp, or perhaps like a blind panhandler.

Mark in mid-stumpgasm as Seb and Merek look on enviously.