The most important time of year for any Japanese person is spring. Spring is when the school year begins. Spring is when the new business season starts, which means personnel reshuffles and staff being moved between offices. And getting married in early April is just as cool as tying the knot on February 14th in Europe.
And it’s all because of Hanami. Hanami is when the Japanese admire the cherry blossoms. A very important event for every Japanese person. Many take 2-3 days of vacation for it (out of their legally allotted 15 days a year).
The tradition goes back centuries. They say it was already fashionable at the imperial court in the 3rd-4th centuries. Although until the 9th century they admired not cherry blossoms but mountain plum. Plum was popular in China back then, and Japan was under heavy Chinese influence. But from the 10th century the country went its own way, and it became the patriotic thing to admire your own native cherry blossoms instead.
It was always deeply symbolic. The blossoming was tied to the start of a new agricultural season. And a true samurai was supposed to have no fear of death, and, if it came to it, to give up his life as easily as cherry petals fall. By the way, the planes of the Japanese kamikaze in World War II bore those very five petals. Now you understand why.
This spring we had the good fortune to see Hanami “at full scale.”
How did I picture the whole thing? In my head, the Japanese were supposed to wander the parks in silence, quietly falling into wild rapture over the beauty around them. Contemplating the eternal. And taking careful little sips of sake from a flask. Thoughtfully, you know. Not for the sake of drunkenness, but for the sake of contemplation.
How it actually goes. Roughly like one of those city-day street festivals with the main avenue closed to traffic — picture whatever packed street party you know best. Crowds everywhere. Fast-food stalls all over the place, traditional and otherwise. Lines. Picnics on the grass. Booze flowing like a river. One big drunken blowout, in a word. They say that, in order to properly admire the cherry blossoms, some groups grab the most beautiful picnic spots in advance. They lay out their blankets on Wednesday and take turns standing guard on them until Saturday, so that afterward the whole merry crowd can gaze to their heart’s content. Commune, so to speak. With nature.
All in all, the Japanese understand a thing or two about having fun. And if you want to admire cherry blossoms in silence within the city limits, you can do it at a cemetery. I’m serious. Japanese cemeteries are very much worth a visit.