I never did get to experience Sakura

All the while that I was in Japan there was a tension in the air, not just the usual stress of work, nor the nervous anticpation of the big one, but one where everyone was anticpating the arrival of the Sakura - the cherry blossoms. It has been a somewhat colder spring and as such it has been late in arriving this year. I was hoping that before I left I would be able to see the spectacle which for a foriegner is not so much the blossoms themselves but the mayhem that ensue around them. Apparently, once the blossoming has occured all the parks and gardens become packed with hordes of Japanese armed with Sake and Cherry Blossom liquor, picnic blankets and portable karoke machines. Each group sets up in a patch of clear space in the park and proceeds get sloshed belting out karoke favourites. Even if I get to witness and maybe even participate inI guess there are somethings I will just never understand.



Waiting for Sakura