I hope everyone is having a happy 4th of July!!!
Enjoy the fireworks, and never forget why we celebrate!
Category: General (Page 8 of 18)
A big happy Father’s Day to all the dads I know!!!
I know it’s a bit late, but I just wanted to say happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers in my life!!!
Wow, it’s hard to believe that I have had this website up and running since before I went to Europe in 2008. This is just now my 100th post. At least I’m averaging more than one a month.
Things have been going well. It’s the hanami (flower viewing) season here in Japan, which means the cherry blossoms are out in full force. It actually started when I came back from Bankok. I had the opportunity to see the cherry blossoms in the famous Ueno park in Tokyo. It was a strange year for the Sakura (cherry blossoms) though. They started blooming in Tokyo first, which is very unusual. Usually it starts in Kyushu (the southernmost main island), and slowly works it’s way up through Honshu (the largest of the main islands), and finally ends in Hokkaido (the northernmost of the main islands). This year it started in Tokyo, which is in the center of Honshu. I think the reason for this is because they had an usual warm front hit Tokyo before the other places.
Whatever caused it doesn’t really matter too much to me though, since I was lucky enough to land when the blossoms were in full bloom.
“So why is the hanami season so important in Japan?” you may be asking.
I’m glad you asked. So honestly, I don’t know the history, or why this one flower is the most important when they have so many other beautiful flowers. It may be because it’s so abundant and it’s one of the first to bloom, starting off quite a long viewing season. It may just be due to the fact that they are so beautiful. Whatever the original reason, it is huge here. It has become everyone’s excuse to go to the park for a picnic, and drink sake until they can’t stand anymore.
Now, I understand, anyone can have a picnic and get drunk. I know. But what makes this so extraordinary is the fact that everyone does it at the same time. People travel long distances to see famous trees and buy the local sake and special foods. Some people, rather than backpacking through Europe or other places, will travel from southern Japan to the north to follow the blooming sakura.
It’s pretty amazing.
Now, about my season. I had two good weekends of hanami, minus my day in Ueno Park.
Last week, the sakura in Koriyama were blooming, so I decided to walk around the city. It was beautiful, and since I had no end in mind, I found quite a few beautiful places. After walking for about an hour and a half, I ended up at the big park in Koriyama. There are so many sakura there. Since it’s such an important time, I was able to buy festival food. I had yakitori (meat on a stick) and some beer and just walked around and enjoyed the day. There were so many people there. After I left the park, I just walked around some more before finally heading back home. All in all, I think I walked around the city for about 4-5 hours just looking at the cherry blossoms.
My school had our Hanami Party on Saturday. It wasn’t outdoors though due to the fact that there are quite a few teachers and students who have allergies. We ended up going to a fairly nice restaurant. We talked and drank all night long. One of the other teachers crashed at my place because he couldn’t drive back. Then on Sunday morning, upon waking, we found that it was snowing. It is very rare to get snow during the hanami season. It has only happened twice in the last 15 years. He is from Aizu, and the blossoms there bloom about a week after Koriyama, so we decided to go check it out. It was amazing. I had no idea how beautiful it could have been. I wish I had the words to describe it to you, but I couldn’t even begin to do it service, so with that, I will send you to my gallery page so that you can see it for yourself.
The places that I went
- Ueno Park – Tokyo
- Kannon Sama Goddess – Aizu Mura Park – Aizu, Fukushima
- Tsuruga Castle – Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima
In closing, if you get a chance to visit Japan during the hanami season, I highly recommend it. Yes, the flowers are beautiful, but more than that, you get to witness the best of the Japanese culture. I can probably honestly say that this is the one time of the year that makes all the troubles I’ve had to go through well worth it.
The title is a little misleading. I am far from chilling. It’s been around 90-95 degrees and extremely humid everyday so far, and the night isn’t much better.
It’s a blast though. The food is spicy. Great going down, not so great… well, I’ll just let you use your imagination to finish that one.
I have many pics, but the internet here is far from optimal, so you’re just going to have to wait for me to get back before I can upload them to the gallery.
I haven’t done many touristy things yet. Mostly, I’ve just been getting a lay of the land. Been relaxing a lot (sleeping in, eating, taking a nap, then waking up to go out for the evening). I’m going to be going to a temple here in a few minutes, so I’m pretty excited about that.
I’ll try to keep everyone updated here and on Twitter.