お花見-Ohanami

With the sakura (cherry blossoms) in full bloom, I’ve come to observe what I’ve interpreted to be a sacred Japanese tradition.  When the sakura bloom, it is the Japanese tradition of hanami to go out to look at them.  And that’s it.  Sometimes people plan a picnic or the city plans a festival, but many Japanese people simply go out to look at the sakura and appreciate their beauty. 

I didn’t realize what a big deal it was until this past week.  The newspapers have detailed maps of what percentage of blossoms the sakura trees in various cities have and which areas have lights on for night-time viewings.  The tv news covers stories about “hanami gone wrong” and shows off products that resemble sakura.  Anytime you pass by an area with some cherry trees, you’re bound to see people just standing and looking at them.  My mother loves sakura so much that a couple years ago she had three of them (representing her three daughters) planted in our backyard in Oklahoma (the picture below actually is of our cherry tree, but I pasted my face onto my little sister's so the perverts won't come looking for her or something). 

My host parents went to look at sakura yesterday, and today, they went to separate locations to see more.  I believe my host dad is going again tomorrow.  How many times a year do they go to hanami, and how many years have they done it, and how many photos of sakura have they taken in all that time?  Yet they’re still going and taking pictures.  The fact that these people admire these trees and make a day out of going just to look at them shows the kind of values these people have.  Of course, Japan has its problems, but isn’t it amazing that so many people go out to appreciate trees and that they do it year after year?  I don’t know what kind of historical or cultural symbolism that sakura hold, but I’m deeply touched by the Japanese people’s general reverence of them.  感動しています。

I myself accidentally hanami-ed this past weekend when I happened upon a sakura festival while hanging out in Kobe.  There weren’t very many trees there, but they were beautiful nonetheless, and the general festival atmosphere was pretty fun.  I’m really glad that I was able to experience that, but after having heard today of other people’s hanami experiences from over the weekend, I really want to go again and appreciate it even more.