Cherry Blossom Season

So for Cherry Blossom season, we have to jump back to April. Around this time, the last chill of winter had disappeared, and a period of high winds ushered in a tide of warm air from the south that will flow over Japan for seven months or so.
This triggers the beginning of one of the most sacred and celebrated events in Japan, the blossoming of the cherry trees. Beginning in the southern island of Okinawa and slowly spreading north to Hokkaido, the many, many cherry trees that line the streets and dot the hillsides in Japan burst into flower. Some are white, some with a faint green hue, but the majority are a soft, beautiful shade of pink. Without seeing it in person, it's hard to convey the delicate, breathtaking and ethereal beauty of a stand of trees swaying in a gentle wind, as their petals drift lazily through the air to brush your cheek before coating the ground in a soft blanket of pink...this being one of those FEW occasions where the color pink is actually OK in my book. Its beauty rivals the autumn leaves in Ontario, as well as the lush, golden jungles of Thailand, but it is a fleeting beauty.
The Japanese revere the cherry blossom so much because its lifespan, only a few short weeks, echoes the passionate but often short lives of the samurai, and reminds us of the temporary and transitory nature of our own existence. Personally, I just thought they were pretty.
The 'hanami" is a great little tradition that goes with the season - the cherry blossom viewing party. While it may sound a bit dry (as the blossoms don't do tricks or anything) it's really more like 50% viewing and 50% drinking. Maybe 40-60, I can't remember. Anyway, since it's quite ok to drink in public in Japan (a fact I was tickled pink to learn of), people break out the sake, shochu, wine, beer, or all of the above and proceed to a nearby park. There, under the shade of the cherry trees, the Japanese proceed to drink like Canadians during "Hockey Night in Canada".
I went to one of these at a castle in Oita city, and it was more fun than a barrel of drunken monkeys. Victoria was there, and Christine, the Geos teacher in Beppu. This was one of the first times I really hung out with Chris, and she would later become a great friend. Also there were a bunch of Japanese English students who looked as if they had just ransacked a distillery. We sat on a tarp, under some trees at the edge of the castle's moat, and here is where it starts to get a bit fuzzy. We went to eat after, possibly for Yaki-niku, but don't hold me to that, because the Emperor could have asked us to dine at his palace and I probably wouldn't remember.
At any rate, I consider my first hanami a roaring success, as I got a tonne of good pictures, had a blast, and only drank away one or two I.Q. points. The picture is pretty self-explanatory; me, under the trees, by the castle. So till next year, kampai! (Cheers.)