Do you remember how I said in my post yesterday that, “Cherry blossom season = heaven on earth!”? Well with a statement like that, do you really think I would limit my comments on cherry blossoms to only part of one post? No! As an old Japanese proverb says: “The cherry is first among flowers, as the warrior is first among men.”
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The word for cherry trees and their blossoms in Japanese, is sakura (桜 or 櫻, さくら). The cherry blossom is Japan’s unofficial national flower. It has been celebrated for many centuries and takes a very prominent position in Japanese culture. There are dozens of different cherry tree varieties in Japan, most of which bloom for just a couple of days in spring. The Japanese celebrate that time of the year with cherry blossom viewing parties under the blooming trees. This has become such a prominent part of Japanese culture, that the practice even has its own name: Hanami, literally meaning “flower viewing.” Although the word means “flower viewing”, the word is almost always used to mean viewing sakura or ume blossoms (Japanese apricot, but generally referred to as plum blossoms in English).
Hanami is one of the most popular events of Spring. Crowds of people (families, groups of friends, and groups from companies) sit under the trees, usually on blue plastic tarps, and have a picnic celebration. The picnic fare consists of a wide variety of foods, snack foods, and sake or other drinks. In very popular places the competition for prime picnic spots is very intense. People claim spots by arriving very early in the morning and sitting all day long until the real celebrations begin in the evening. It is a common sight to see a young man in a business suit sitting under a cherry tree early in the morning reserving a space for his company. The new employees are traditionally given this job of sitting all day long to reserve space for the company celebration.+--+April+2+(Wed)+155.jpg)
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Hanami at night is called yozakura (“night sakura”). In many places such as Ueno Park temporary paper lanterns are hung for the purpose of yozakura.
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Since the Heian Period (794-1185) flower-viewing parties were popular among the Japanese aristocracy. In the Azuchi Momoyama Period (1568-1600) the cherry blossom viewing spread out to the rest of the population. In fact, Tokugawa Yoshimune, the 8th shogun of Japan (ruling from 1716 to 1745), planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this. In more than half of Japan, the cherry blossoming period coincides with the beginning of the scholastic and fiscal years (which is April in Japan), and so welcoming parties are often opened with hanami.+--+April+2+(Wed)+091.jpg)
Not only do people go to see the blossoms, but sakura flavor can be found in many things this time of year, from ice cream, to Kit Kats.+--+Feb+14+(Thurs)+119.jpg)
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You also can buy sakura flavoring to make your own sakura desserts.+--+April+2+(Wed)+036.jpg)
Yesterday Mr. Fuji left work early so that we could all go do hanami together. We went to Ueno Park, one of my favorite places to see sakura.
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The blossoms were spectacular. At times when the wind would blow a bit, it gave the illusion of snow as petals were blown from the trees.+--+April+2+(Wed)+063.jpg)
We also enjoyed seeing all of the people enjoying hanami. My favorite was this group of people wearing these great hot pink clown wigs:+--+April+2+(Wed)+069.jpg)
There were lots of food stalls set up selling traditional festival foods, including my personal favorites, okonomiyaki and asa-zuke (lightly pickled cucumber).
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Squirrel enjoyed “helping” Mr. Fuji push her stroller.+--+April+2+(Wed)+153.jpg)
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Check out this list if you would like to know more about popular/famous hanami spots.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! Nice photos too! I am going to link back to here if anyone asks me to explain the reasoning behind hanami and why sakura are important!
Enjoy the last couple of days of the blossoms!
Squirrel looks as cute as ever!
i loved the cherry blossoms in DC, i cant imagine the incredible ammount of blossoms in japan!
i designed cherry blossom socks this year…but havent had them test knitted yet :-)
As I read your post, I thought I was going to get through one without getting hungry…wrong! Pink Kit Kats, cherry blossom flavoring…how cool is that!
Now I want to have a picnic under a cherry blossom tree. They remind me of the “popcorn popping” song. I bet when the wind blows, it looks like it’s snowing.
I LOVE SPRING!
What a great post accompanied by lovely pictures! It’s so good to know more about Japanese culture from firsthand experience like yours! And I love Japanese pancakes – makes my mouth water just thinking about it . . .
I would so love to have cherry blossoms thriving on our country, but alas it would take more than a miracle for that to happen.
Arlene,
Poulsbo florist
How cool- thanks for sharing!
Found you blog through Golden Purl/Jean and I am also an expat and a knitter- though living in India.
I am missing blossoming trees!
hi
thank you for sharing hanami with us
and the food looks tasty
i can wait to go to japan !!!
Oh to be in a part of the world right now where plants are even considering blossoming! So beautiful! We would like to see Mr. Fuji sporting one of those fancy wig things…
Squirrel looks so radiant! What a fun family outing!
My sister would write us about the cherry blossoms while she was on her mission in Sendai. It’s fun to see so many pictures of them!!
Wow! Cherry blossom macarons? Heaven!!
I love sakura! One of the disappointing things about Hokkaido is that it usually comes around GW, when I am gone. It’s usually still too cold to sit out and enjoy it though.
I had a Japanese boyfriend for several years–I met him when he was sitting on the blue tarp in his suit holding the space for his company in Yoyogi Park! I had been there for hours enjoying the sake aspect of hanami, and decided he looked lonely (and very very cute) and needed company!
I tried one of those sakura macarons, and I just polished off a sakura scone, but with the pile of old snow outside, it’s just not the same…
This is a wonderful post about your day, the cherry blossoms and all the fabulous food. My children and I love to go to our local Japanese market, the Daido, to pick up fun things to try out. Thanks for sharing!
Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go
I was just going through your blog (starting from the beginning and working my way through) I absolutely love it! And I really wanted to comment on this post, because I was in Japan on a school trip when the cherry blossoms started blooming, and I saw your pictures of Ueno Park and I was incredibly excited because I saw the exact places in the same year that you took the pictures of for this post! ^_^
Your blog is an absolute inspiration, I’ve always wanted to live in Japan, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get to, but reading about your experiences is so much fun ^_^
Hanami and Christmas are the best times of year in Tokyo
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/hanami-party-in-springtime-japan/