Sakura Hanami

I went to my very first hanami today. Hanami is a flower viewing party. An integral part of spring, it's a flower viewing party for the sakura, or cherry blossoms. In Japan the cherry blossoms are more than just a symbol of spring, they're a symbol of national identity and as such they are taken very seriously.

Cherry blossoms come as the weather warms up for spring, thus appear in the southern parts of Japan before the northern. I haven't witnessed it but I'm told that there are nightly sakura reports on the news around the time that they're predicted to appear and these predictions are taken very seriously. You can follow the cherry blossom front all the way up the country. The height of sakura is supposed to be this upcoming Thursday.

So today I, with some others, participated in this much respected national pastime and had a picnic in the park (along with literally thousands of others). Yum, everyone brought something to share so I got to try all sort of new and delicious things. In all fairness though cherry blossom viewing doesn't have to happen in a park. Wherever there's a tree you'll find people sitting under it. The thing to do is sit under the trees, eat and drink (either sake or beer).

As the sakura season is very short, only a week or so, it will be a busy week trying to pack in as much viewing as possible. Already two other parties are in the works.