It's that time of year again! Sakura season! (Cherry Blossom season!) It has come late this year, and is still not fully in bloom here where I live. But I was able to go "sakura viewing" on Tuesday when I was farther south, dropping off my boyfriend at the airport. The season (generally about 3 weeks long in any given place) flows northward little by little. It's my dream to one day follow the sakura, up throughout all of Japan. Sakura is one of those things that you can not adequately describe. It's one of those things that makes you hate photography. Nothing can possibly catch the beauty of Sakura season here in Japan.
I am returning home this summer, but it was am impossibly difficult decision because I am so in love with Japan. One of my top 2 reasons to stay in Japan was because... I simply can't imagine never seeing sakura in Japan again. I can't imagine a life where spring passes, and I don't get to witness anything so beautiful.
You may think I'm a big goop if you haven't seen it. If you live here in Japan, you know exactly what I mean.
So, I dropped off my boyfriend in the morning, but decided to travel home on a ticket that gives unlimited local railway travel. So instead of paying 70 bucks to get home, I paid 20, but it would take 4 times as long, with 3 transfers. But the good thing about this special ticket, which is only sold 4 weeks out of the year, is that you can use it all day long. Usually if you have a ticket from point A to point D, you can not get off and look around at B or C.
The thing I loved about being there is that no one was in a hurry. It's about 1pm on a school day/workday.....but the people that are there are there on purpose. No one is cutting through the park after misjudging the line at the bank and running back to work from their lunch break. No one is fighting. No one brought a big loud boom box with crude music for their party. The focus of everyone's party are the blossoms. Period. Everyone is looking up.
Old, young, lovers, friends, moms, babies, dogs,....everyone is looking up. Trying, like me to snap the best picture possible to show off...all knowing that it's a futile cause.
So, I dropped off my boyfriend in the morning, but decided to travel home on a ticket that gives unlimited local railway travel. So instead of paying 70 bucks to get home, I paid 20, but it would take 4 times as long, with 3 transfers. But the good thing about this special ticket, which is only sold 4 weeks out of the year, is that you can use it all day long. Usually if you have a ticket from point A to point D, you can not get off and look around at B or C. But I could. So one of the places I hopped off was at Kokura. I have been to Kokura once before, but only to watch a movie, that wasn't playing anywhere else. I will refrain from naming the movie (*cough cough Twilight-New Moon).
I decided to get off here mostly because I had just learned that Kokura was also a target of the 1945 atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kokura--just one Shinkansen stop away from me, could have been destroyed. Except it was a cloudy day, and the plane got diverted. I read about all this only a few days before on a trip to Hiroshima's Peace Museum with my boyfriend. Something as simple as a layer of clouds protected thousands upon thousands of people.
I decided to go to Kokura Castle, because I had never been on that side of the station, and the map showed a river and it seemed like an okay idea. I almost just got right back on the next train. I don't really care about castles.
Wow.
What a sight. The entire area that the castle was in was full of Sakura trees and Hanami parties.
Hanami parties are a famous thing in Japan. You gather your friends. You get a blanket or a "blue sheet" (a tarp....but 'blue sheet' is ubiquitous here). You find a good spot under the cherry blossoms. And you eat, drink and be merry. One the picture above, the little group actually has a little barbecue going. Public drinking in Japan is legal, so many groups were fun and rowdy. I actually bought myself a half a dozen takoyaki (octopus balls), and stuck myself under a tree, while trying to hold back emotion. Emotion from having all my senses overwhelmed from the beauty (and maybe from having to say goodbye to Kyle too!)
The thing I loved about being there is that no one was in a hurry. It's about 1pm on a school day/workday.....but the people that are there are there on purpose. No one is cutting through the park after misjudging the line at the bank and running back to work from their lunch break. No one is fighting. No one brought a big loud boom box with crude music for their party. The focus of everyone's party are the blossoms. Period. Everyone is looking up. 
Old, young, lovers, friends, moms, babies, dogs,....everyone is looking up. Trying, like me to snap the best picture possible to show off...all knowing that it's a futile cause. I may be returning to California. But Japan is my home too. And this will not be my last Sakura viewing.
May the blossoms be of some comfort to those in the disaster stricken area, as soon as Sakura season reaches there... My heart is still with the Tohoku region.
Here is this years Sakura forecast: Click.
No comments:
Post a Comment