The sakura, or cherry blossoms, have arrived. This is the most anticipated of all the seasons in Japan. In a matter of days, the dark-barked trees transform from winter skeletons into spring flower gardens. I'm not kidding about the abruptness. Just last Friday the tree at the corner of the park past which I ride my bicycle each day was a cold, empty, tangle of knuckles and long bony fingers. Suddenly on Monday, it was covered in pink baby fuzz. Today, it's filled with blossoms.
I walked through the park today. It's called Shiroyama Koen, which means Castle Mountain Park. There's not a castle in sight and it's nowhere near the mountains, however, so I'm not sure how it got the name. Regardless, it's one of the most interesting unknown places to see sakura. Only a handful of local people know about it, and this town of Sano has only 80,000 people. Thus, in the scheme of things, it's a pretty private place.
What scheme? I'm thinking of the most famous of sakura sites like Ueno Park in Tokyo, Yoshino near Kyoto, and maybe the moat around the Imperial Palace. Try getting anywhere near those places on a weekend and you'll swear off sakura for the rest of your life. Take a two-hour train ride from Tokyo into the countryside where I live, get off at Sano Station, and walk directly out the back side of the station into Shiroyama Koen, and you'll put this season on your calendar for as long as you live.
I walked through the park yesterday with Asuka and asked her why people love the trees so much. "Because they come and go so quickly," she said. I agree. It's the reverse of the old saying about the stars, how we'd marvel at them so if they came but once every ten years. Because they appear every night, we cast them nary a glance most of the time. With sakura, they weren't here a week ago and they won't be here a week later, not in full at least. You better see them now while you can or you'll be waiting another year.
That understanding is not lost on the Japanese. Companies and families dispatch designees to watch over their space under a favorite tree all day so that it's waiting for them at night. For what? A hanami, or flower drinking party. People show up at dusk with supplies for an elaborate picnic under the sakura. They set up gas camp stoves, coolers of alcohol, and endless containers of food. Then they sit and sing and drink until they're not sure where they are anymore, but they're still under those canopies of cotton candy.
I'll close with the immortal words of my friend Michael Graetzer from his song "Sakura" on his album Soul Direction:
Sakura, here today and gone tomorrow
Sakura, the blossom with wings
Sakura, you're the beauty and the sorrow
wonder what this year will bring to me
until you come back again
turning the winter to spring, sakura, sakura, sakura
Posted by Jason Kelly at 7:16 PM Japan time |
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