Our yearly flower-viewing party got postponed due to rain, so we didn’t get to enjoy the cherry blossoms in full bloom, but we had a great time under the beautiful new green leaves at Osaka Castle Park!

As always, our venue was Nishinomaru Garden, located west of Osaka Castle. The mansion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s wife, Kita no Mandokoro, was said to be located here. Approximately 300 cherry trees are planted on these spacious grounds. Needless to say, this is one of the biggest cherry blossom spots in Osaka! (Next year it would be nice if we actually got to see some flowers. Haha.)

Including our outsourcing partners and the new grads who joined the company on April 1st, this was a massive party of about 200 people in all!

It had been rainy since the beginning of April, but on the day of the party, we were blessed by good weather. It was so sunny it was almost hot!

Sitting around a delicious meal with friends while relishing the change of the seasons is one of the true pleasures of Japanese party culture. You get the chance to talk to people you don’t usually converse with, which could be helpful at work too!

Here, a new programmer (left) and the lead programmer Kazunori Morita (center) are greeting CEO Tatsuya Minami (right). At PlatinumGames, no one ever needs to worry whether their senpai is noticing them.

As a groundbreaking new initiative, we have decided to hire a pigeon this year. We thought it would be coo’. (Sorry.)

A generous employee donated sake for our own little sake tasting corner. This was lovely.

Ever since the founding of PlatinumGames, we’ve held three big yearly events: the flower-viewing party, the new employee welcome party, and the end-of-the-year party. But the flower viewing party is the only one that we close the office and make a huge occasion for! (Sorry for closing the office on a weekday afternoon…)

Today was our biggest festivity of the year, and we enjoyed it to the max!

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