shortly before we went on our little European vacation, we got to experience one of Japan's most famous and impressive festivals, which is held all over the country. called hanami matsuri, it means flower watching festival, and the flower in question is one that has become among the most prominent symbols of Japan, the sakura, or cherry blossom.
sakura views, clockwise from top left: one of the blossoms itself, showing the famous shape that is often used as a symbol of Japan; the visual impact of a group of these trees in bloom, here at Kitanomaru Gardens in Tokyo; the blossoms fall quickly and thickly, as this couple's boat demonstrates; and Jill and i complement the beauty of the season...
the Japanese track the arrival of the sakura season with great interest, the national weather service issuing at least daily bulletins predicting when the petals will bloom. they don't last for long, usually about a week, and so they are comprehensively celebrated while they do linger, seemingly by everyone in the country. the weather service had some difficulty in their predictions this year, revising several times before people started to ignore them and just look out of the window, but the delay in arrival meant that we had perfect timing to see them in all their glory.
the drunken hordes sitting or weaving their way through the rest of the masses at Shinjuku Gyoen in West Tokyo. we've never seen such excitement caused by blossoming trees before.
to the Japanese, sakura season and the hanami festival are supposed to be a time to reflect on the ephemeral nature of life; to many however, this time of year is just an excuse to get very drunk in public. our good timing meant that we were in Tokyo at the height of the festival, and so got to visit some of the largest parks with the densest collections of trees--and drunks. the first thing we did after arriving at the Shinjuku station was to head for the nearby Shinjuku Gyoen, or park, which had about a half-hour line just to get in. and that was with a ¥200 per person admission fee. but there were a lot of trees, and, as in the rest of Japan, a lot of signs. all over the park there were examples written in Japanese and English explicitly enjoining the use of alcohol; all over the park there were large groups sitting on blue tarps with huge quantities of it. it was quite strange to see such lawlessness in straight-laced Japan, but i guess even they have to cut loose every once in a while. thank goodness for the sakura.
sakura views, clockwise from top left: one of the blossoms itself, showing the famous shape that is often used as a symbol of Japan; the visual impact of a group of these trees in bloom, here at Kitanomaru Gardens in Tokyo; the blossoms fall quickly and thickly, as this couple's boat demonstrates; and Jill and i complement the beauty of the season...
the Japanese track the arrival of the sakura season with great interest, the national weather service issuing at least daily bulletins predicting when the petals will bloom. they don't last for long, usually about a week, and so they are comprehensively celebrated while they do linger, seemingly by everyone in the country. the weather service had some difficulty in their predictions this year, revising several times before people started to ignore them and just look out of the window, but the delay in arrival meant that we had perfect timing to see them in all their glory.
the drunken hordes sitting or weaving their way through the rest of the masses at Shinjuku Gyoen in West Tokyo. we've never seen such excitement caused by blossoming trees before.
to the Japanese, sakura season and the hanami festival are supposed to be a time to reflect on the ephemeral nature of life; to many however, this time of year is just an excuse to get very drunk in public. our good timing meant that we were in Tokyo at the height of the festival, and so got to visit some of the largest parks with the densest collections of trees--and drunks. the first thing we did after arriving at the Shinjuku station was to head for the nearby Shinjuku Gyoen, or park, which had about a half-hour line just to get in. and that was with a ¥200 per person admission fee. but there were a lot of trees, and, as in the rest of Japan, a lot of signs. all over the park there were examples written in Japanese and English explicitly enjoining the use of alcohol; all over the park there were large groups sitting on blue tarps with huge quantities of it. it was quite strange to see such lawlessness in straight-laced Japan, but i guess even they have to cut loose every once in a while. thank goodness for the sakura.
No comments:
Post a Comment