Memories of Spring in Japan

Some brief flashes of memory from Hanami, and a shrine atop Mt. Mitake, which I climbed this week.

Jazz

Hanami! 花見！

Ever since I arrived in Japan, all of my flatmates have been telling me, in ever-increasing excitement, about Hanami and how much I ought to be looking forward to it. If you're going to do one thing that's incredibly... Japanesey while you're over here, this is the event to go to.

Before the actual event, it's difficult to imagine how a picnic can be the cultural epicentre of a nation. Throw in the fact that this year I was confined to Tokyo, as far from nature as possible, and the idea became less and less appealing. I wouldn't have imagined that sharing a small concrete space with millions of families and salarymen while snaffling some supermarket sushi would be much of a relaxing experience. I was, of course, completely wrong. It was a thoroughly magical experience, so much so that I did three in the space of a week.

Firstly, the potential over-crowdedness which I was dreading turned out to be one of the best things about it. There must have been hundreds of thousands of people crammed into the park where I was plonked on my picnic sheet with friends and colleagues, yet there were no sounds of raucous shouting or drunken violence. There was just a wall of happy white noise floating through the cherry blossom trees. People, young and old, rich and poor, were just sitting, enjoying themselves, drinking and relaxing. Usually one only sees a crowd this size when sandwiched between two salarymen's armpits on the chikatetsu (underground), so it's wonderful to see an even greater crowd getting along with zero stress. It's this ability to co-exist without getting under everyone else's skin that Japanese people do extremely well. Even the Yakuza were there, sitting in their picnic spot enjoying themselves. Where else in the world would you find elements of organised crime sitting under pink flowers eating a sandwich next to a group of kids?

And then of course, there're the sakura blossoms themselves. Now, I've had some good picnics in my time (including some very bad ones, being forced to brave ice-cold rain storms with nothing but a sandwich to protect me from the elements, all in the name of steely British reserve), but nothing beats laying under a canopy of pink blossoms that stretch into the horizon. If you time it just right, you can picnic as the blossoms are beginning to fall, and so all afternoon you can eat with friends while petals are raining all around you. Visually, it truly is a magical experience.

I'm sure there are far more beautiful and serene places to have a Hanami, but sharing Yoyogi park with thousands of Tokyo-ites all getting along perfectly in the spirit of relaxation... I felt like I was a thousand miles away.

Having done a Hanami in a sprawling concrete mess, I think next time I'll head out into the country side and try to do one with just a small group of friends, but honestly, if you have the time to spare, it's worth seeing just how well Japanese people do things on a massive scale without everything descending into drunken brawls and shooting!