Sakura Matsuri

So, I used to live in Japan. After university, I didn't know yet what I wanted to do with my life, and I'd been studying Japanese, so I decided that moving to Tokyo to teach English was a great plan. And it was - I met my best friend there, got to experience living in a new country, discovered a love of language and linguistics, and more (trust me, I'll be writing about Japan quite often).

Every year in Japan, the major sign of spring is when the cherry blossom trees bloom. The blossoms are only there for a few weeks before they fall, so the entire country goes rather mad over them. Desserts become cherry blossom-flavoured, everyone does hanami (literally 'flower-viewing', but this involves picnicking with food and lots of alcohol under the cherry blossom trees).

I never actually did hanami when I was in Japan and felt like I missed out. It doesn't seem like a lot, to have skipped picknicking under some trees, but it's such a big deal in Japan I rather regret having not. Of course, I didn't miss seeing the trees themselves - they're everywhere and are impossible to miss. And the sakura-flavoured ice cream is surprisingly good.

The cherry blossom trees are rather symbolic of the ephemeral nature of life - their beauty and transience is associated with mortality - a sort of 'all things pass' idea that's rather intrinsic to a lot of Japanese culture. The song in the video below is even entitled 'Sakura' (the Japanese word for the cherry blossoms).

So, cherry blossoms are a big deal. When I was there, I rather thought that sure, they were pretty, but did they really justify the huge fuss? The weather channel in Japan even provides a forecast on the cherry blossom front, just like you'd report on a cold front coming in, telling people when to expect the blossoms in their area. At the time, perhaps I didn't quite understand how important they were to Japan, but now that I've left Japan, I really miss them.

My boyfriend knew this and tracked down some trees in our city and took me to see them as a surprise. They weren't blooming yet that first time we went, so, naturally, we went back two more weeks in a row to catch them in full bloom. It was rainy and still a bit chilly, but the cherry blossoms were blooming and were beautiful. Our trees are much younger than most of those in Japan and so didn't blanket the entire river like they would have in Tokyo, but they were as beautiful as I remembered and brought back a lot of memories of great times in Japan.

 I said I'm not the biggest fan of surprises, but not the way my boyfriend does it. He does find the most wonderful things to surprise me with. We live in Indianapolis (I've lived a little bit of everywhere, though, so expect a variety of spellings and wordings from me) and it was the last place I would have expected to find cherry blossom trees. But here they are in White River State Park along the riverbank.

Next year, if it's warmer, I'd like to try to do hanami (except without the sake - I'm not a drinker) with him. We can bring a blanket and food and sit under the trees and can bring bento and dango to eat and enjoy the transient beauty of the trees. It won't be quite the same, as there won't be the crowds that there are in Tokyo, but I certainly won't mind having them all to myself with my awesome boyfriend.