For those that don’t know, “sakura” are the cherry blossoms that grace Japan every year. “Hanami” is a “flower viewing” which can be romantic but usually turns into a huge drunken party under the cherry blossoms far into the evening. And “Kyoto” is just some city in Japan. Alright, alright, Kyoto is a beautiful city full of culture that used to be Japan’s capital before Tokyo! But we’ll get to Kyoto later on…
Being an American, what amazes me about hanami is how people can reserve a spot in public place and people usually respect the reservation. Somebody will go to the park early and block off a section for their group with string and a note saying “reserved [this date] at [this time]“… and there usually isn’t any problem. Talk about courtesy! That’s like having nosebleed seats at a football game and not moving to the already reserved front row seats that are empty. In the U.S. after a while we’d move down to those awesome seats until the person who reserved those seats showed up, if ever.
Each person usually bring something to the party such as drinks, snacks, food, bento, and last year I made pizza at home and brought that . I always have fun at hanami parties because brings a mixture of friends together. Here’s a photo of a sakura tree in full bloom. For more pictures of the beautiful cherry blossoms and hanami action, check out Ben Does Japan where he goes to Kyoto to check things out.
A Friend's Chihuahua Loving the Sakura
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