4.4.23
The sakura season is adored by Japan, and for good reason.
First, there’s the sheer visual beauty:
The soft boldness of the sudden blooms.
The floating branches covered in petal sleeves.
The neverending passages of pink canopying infinite heads.
The mountains blushing with sakura clouds.
The gentle surrender of the petals taking leave.
Second, the festive culture:
Sakura trees are found as both solo pieces and whole galleries.
Lone sakura dot the freshly greening mountains, which are like jewels found glowing in dark caves. Solo trees are also found in almost every school ground, as a Japanese school year must kick off with yet another picture with begrudging poses in front of the wispy pink.
But when with friends, the trees make for a sight to behold. The tunnels along rivers and parties among grounds make for perfect picnic places–for centuries, Japanese people have come in hordes to do hanami (translation: flower-watching, though it's specific only to sakura flowers). Today, this means grabbing a spot under the sakura to admire the fura-fura of the flowers and to welcome the random petals finding rest in the karaage, onigiri, tamago-yaki, wagashi you are eating with loved ones.
And then, there’s the poetic, more soulful nature of the trees:
Cherry blossoms bloom so gloriously despite their short-lived season–it’s a sudden awakening from a long slumber, only to live for one more day. The flowers start fading as soon as they come into being, and this ephemeral nature makes the season all the more beautiful. Every second we look at the trees, a new wind blows to carry some of them away. It reminds one to truly enjoy the present because what we know will disappear second by second, before our very eyes.
Japan also believes these flowers to symbolize the innocence of beauty, as its simultaneously striking and soft glow creates a clean, pure essence of awe. Yet, my awe is mixed with hints of sadness. My time in Yakage is growing shorter and shorter, faster and faster. How is it that March already waved goodbye and passed its baton to April? At this rate, it will be time for me to wave goodbye to my grans, my gramps, my kiddos, my ALT family, my bustling Yakuba fellows. And I can’t help contemplating that in three months, I won’t find myself nestled in the gentle mountain valleys, verdant bowing rice fields, mewing Edo-alleys, giggling hoikuen grounds. At a certain point, it’d be nice to stop thinking about what’s to come and instead just grab hold of what is now.
So perhaps this sakura season comes in perfect time…the blossoms’ brief boldness teaches me to go all out knowing that the end will come. To let this inevitable end drive my embracing Yakage days even more.
As much as the sakura reminds me of endings, sakuras also stand for beginnings. In Yakage, this means new 4 year olds to teach, new teachers to greet, new radio-taiso workers to meet, new moments of laughter to keep.
This is beautiful.
But perhaps still not as beautiful as the sakura.
A series of hanami pictures!! I really tried to go all out this season.
This is the Daigo Sakura, the oldest cherry blossom tree in Okayama. It is said to be over a 1000 years old, and sits alone basking in ultimate glory, upon a high mountain side. To be in its presence was indescribable...it really evoked the power and immeasurable wisdom of nature. What a hubling experience.
this was a cherry blossom grove on Hakata Island that my mom and I biked up a mountain for. It was awesome to see the opal Seto Inland Sea, infamous Shimanami bridge, and flurry of pink all in one frame.
