Ah spring... people changing out their winter tires, the roads clear enough to bike, the school entrance ceremonies... and of course, the most ubiquitous thing Japanese people associate with spring is the sakura (cherry blossoms) blooming. I just flew into Tokyo a couple of weeks ago and they had an announcement about "you are arriving just before the peak of sakura season, so please enjoy the beautiful sight while you are here in Japan..." And I did get to see some sakura blooming, on the bus ride from Narita to Haneda. But when I arrived back in Aomori, there was still some snow on the ground. Now most of it has melted, but there's still some straggling clumps where it was really piled up all winter, and no sakura yet! My neighborhood is famous for having lots of sakura trees (it's even in the name!) and it still looks like this:
The sakura bloom at slightly different times all across Japan, from late March to early April in the south and central area, mid-April to late April in the Tohoku area, and even early May in Hokkaido. Okinawa gets it the earliest, in January! We're supposed to get them in late April and early May, and there are lots of places to view the blossoms. Last year I went to a hanami (flower viewing) picnic at Hirosaki Castle, which has over 2500 sakura trees on its grounds! It was really pretty and a fun festival. I still have never seen yozakura (night-sakura, where they illuminate the trees) and it looks pretty, so I'm hoping to see that this year. Although, I have seen sakura at night riding home on my bike, just not illuminated!
Spring always reminds me of the song 春一番 ("haru ichiban", the first spring) that my Japanese 101 teacher tried to get our class to sing every day in the spring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kns1DHCa0Ss We may have been reluctant to sing in class, but hey, Patton-sensei, I still remember the song! And right now, もうすぐ春ですね~！
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