A young woman viewing cherry blossoms in a park in Tokyo
Celebrating spring, Japan style. You know what time of year it is when the beer cans turn pink, there are strange weather forecasts on TV and train stations are covered with pictures of season is, for many Japanese, the best time of year. This is when the cherryblossom trees all over Japan come in to bloom for between seven and 10 days and people hold outdoor parties to view them. The name says it all - hana means “flower” and mi is“to look”. This is a great time of year to visit Japan as the weather is perfect – warm, but not nearly as hot as summer, and everybody is in a party frame of advent of the blossoms not only heralds the end of a harsh winter but also the beginning of another school year and a new fiscal year for businesses, so hanami is like a party to celebrate a new beginning. From ancient times the people of Japan have celebrated the Cherry many beautiful flowers are depicted in song, paintings and even kimono patterns, flower viewing has always meant the beautiful flowering cherry tree. The cherry blossom period lasts for only about two weeks, but for the Japanese, the lure of this season lies exactly in its short-lived nature. During the Middle Ages, Japan's samurai warriors particularly identified themselves with the fleeting beauty and fragility of the sakura as a symbol of their own lives. The lives of the cherry blossoms are likewise brief. But the Japanese find beauty in the fragile pink petals blown by the wind, delicately landing on plates of food or in sake cups, to delicately proclaim the arrival of spring.
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Photo credit: © Paolo Patrizi / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: blossom, blossoms, cherry, flower, hanami, japan, sakura, spring, tokyo, viewing
