Underneath the Cherry Blossom Tree

…far, by now, from those lofty hills
I still imagine the cherries up there, how the breeze
played with thronging petals…
- Ki no Tsurayuki – Kokinshu 87

There are simply no words I can use to describe the beauty of cherry blossom season here in Kumamoto. Pictures do it no justice, though I have certainly tried. Like Tsurayuki, I will forever be haunted by images of the multitudes of small, pale pink flowers fluttering in the wind. The only image more evocative than cherry blossoms gleaming in the sunlight is the vision of them glowing by a combination of the moonlight from above and paper lanterns hanging from the branches below.

We’ve enjoyed about a week now of cherry blossoms at their peak according to Stewart and given how the weather has cooled, we might have another week or so before they begin to fall, a sight I’m anxious to see as a lot of poetry and literature has been dedicated more to that event than to the actually blossoming.

I’ve not been the only one to enjoy the cherry blossom season, however. Though they witness it every year, the Japanese regard the blooming of cherry blossoms as an almost holy occasion. They gather by the hundreds – and sometimes maybe closer to the thousands – to picnic under the shade of the cherry trees. In fact, in some of the research I have done, the area shaded by a cherry blossom tree is regarded as a sacred space in Heinan poetry, often referred to as tokoro.

A large number of the picnics during the day are families, often with little kids running around kicking soccer balls and playing catch. At night, however, picnics are mainly large groups of business associates. As I’ve been told, the youngest male in the office is charged with securing a nice picnic spot – usually requiring him to take the day off work and sit on a large blue tarp provided at various points around Kumamoto Castle and wait until nightfall when his associates arrive with the sake and sushi. It doesn’t sound like a half bad proposition to me, a day of sitting in the sun with a good book and some good food.

In fact, it sounded so nice that I took an afternoon earlier this week and did that exact thing. On a nice piece of grassland between the southern wall of Kumamoto Castle and the bank of the Tsuboi, facing a pretty line of cherry blossoms on the bank across the narrow river, about fifty other people and I enjoyed picnics on the warm, sunny day. I bought some direct-from-heaven-via-street vender yakitori of chicken and pork and a bottle of green tea from a vending machine - which are absolutely everywhere – and settled down with my favorite book, a collection of Hemingway’s short stories. It was a picture perfect day with the sun warming my face and the cherry blossoms swaying in the breeze.

Back to the Japanese business people, however, they will gather at night under the cherry blossoms and give long toasts and speeches praising the company and predicting good fortune. And observing the number and size of the bottles of sake and chochu – a vodka-like alcohol – consumed during these picnics, I have to believe they end the evening quite hammered.

The Japanese even have a name for this – not the getting hammered part, but the gathering for picnics under the cherry blossoms. They call it hanami, meaning literally, “flower viewing.’ And it is not for picnicking under the tree in your front yard, either. Hanami is specifically reserved for places like Kumamoto Castle where you are surrounded by hundreds of people. Perhaps the best way to describe it is by saying that you’re not really celebrating New Years unless you are in Times Square. Stewart says it’s because the unofficial religion of Japan is not Shinto or Buddhism, but being Japanese. The act of being with so many other Japanese people enjoying the same thing is akin to a religious ceremony. It is the sense of community and togetherness, which is so important to them.

This year, however, they are sharing this religious event with a gaijin and they definitely are aware of it. At first I thought I was ruining some of their pictures of the beautiful scenery as I walked through the shot. When I said something to Stewart though as we were putting our shoes back on after walking through a temple and I saw a man taking a picture several feet away, Stewart corrected me. We weren’t ruining his shot; we were making it. He had been waiting for a few minutes for us to come out of the temple so he could get a shot of the gaijin. Since then, I have noticed several people surreptitiously taking my picture. Nobie and Stewart tease me that all of the promotional materials for next year’s cherry blossom season are going to have pictures of me surrounded by cherry blossoms. Even the gaijin enjoy the cherry blossoms!

More food updates: Nobie bought some traditional Japanese snack food for us to enjoy. I insisted that they not tell me what it was until I tried it all. And after trying it, I insisted on knowing what I just tried, which turned out to be dried squid cracker (very salty, very smelly), dried strips of cuddlefish (like chewing robe and just about as appetizing), and cheese strips with cod (tastes like cheese). I’ve also tried some traditional Japanese desserts like sweet potato cakes (okay, but very dry), and sweet bean paste (not nearly as awful as I imagined, though I still do not believe beans should ever be part of a dessert).

I'll have more tags and descriptions on my pictures at Flickr.com soon. And coming up, Japanese absurdities in the English language.

-Jenny