Another episode of Wow, Japan Sure Loves Nature!
Once again, people have been retreating into mountains and visiting gardens, shrines and castles just to see what the trees are doing. In the fall, I wrote about the changing of the leaves. Now it’s spring, and I’m talking about cherry blossms. 

The blooming of the cherry blossoms (or 桜 sakura) represents new beginnings and a chance to start fresh for many Japanese. This is reflected in literature, art and music from way back when and up until now. Academically, around this time, it’s the end of the school year with graduations and the start of a new one. And nothing says a fresh start more than a celebratory picnic with family and friends (and sometimes alcohol). This is called 花見 or Flower Viewing.

While enjoying the cherry blossoms with Japanese folk, one might learn the different varieties of cherry blossoms like I did. To simplify,  there’s the droopy kind, the white kind (which is also the mountain kind), the dark pink kind, the stereotypical kind, etc. There are also cherry blossom exclusive terms for the night time viewing (夜桜 yozakura), the falling petals (桜吹雪 sakurafubuki), and the trees who’s petals have all flown away (葉桜 hazakura). I’m sure there are even more, but my mind can only hold so much.

The fact that this is all common knowledge in this culture fascinates me, who comes 

from a culture that doesn’t 

quite pay attention to what’s blooming when on a national level.

Unfortunately cherry blossoms have a pretty delicate lifespan and after they’re gone it’s just greenish brown leaves (which you can kind of see in the photo). It’s been about two weeks since they have been blooming so they are on the decline from here on out. As pretty and magical as the falling petals are, I’m sad to see them go.