Sakura

The biggest, most fundamentally-Japanese phenomenon here is the blooming of the sakura, or cherry blossoms. It is the essence of spring. On the television weather reports, they show the 'sakura fronts'. Lines that look like weather fronts but show when the sakura are expected to bloom around the country--starting in the south and moving northwards. When Amy and Lindsay were here, we saw a few blooming sakura in Kyoto, and they said that Tokyo was in full bloom when they were there. The sakura blooming season finally reached us here in Miyagi recently.

Cherry blossoms are everywhere in Japan. The school yard of most schools are lined with them. Parks are filled with them. Shrines, temples, monuments all have sakura growing around them. Driving in the countryside is very pretty during this time.

However, the cherry blossoms only bloom for about a week--maybe two if the weather is very cooperative. Thus during this time, everyone celebrates with hanami--literally flower watching. Everyone finds nice spots under the sakura to spread out a tarp and eat and drink and bask in the beauty. In some places, lights are strung between the trees so that it is pretty at night. That way, people can continue their hanami in the evening. The pictures are from a hanami I had on Sunday with some friends near the castle in Wakuya, a town north of here.

I recently learned the reason why sakura and hanami are so important to Japanese culture. The sakura symbolize life. They are ephemeral and fleeting. The trees bloom, but after a brief period or a heavy wind and rain, they are gone. (Today is raining). Thus, you have to go out and celebrate the blossoms (life) while they're out there...because they'll be gone soon.

Incidently, I realized that I only have 3 more months of living in Japan. So I'm working on celebrating it while I still have it.