More Sakura!

So, you may know that cherry blossom viewing is a BIG DEAL in Japan. People will fight huge crowds and sometime show up in the park at all hours of the night just to get a good place to sit. Let me tell you, everywhere I went Sunday was crazy. There are two large parks near our house, so there were more people than ever. Kana thinks that Japanese people make too big of a deal about cherry blossoms. Usually they just sit around and get drunk anyway! There many sayings and images of cherry blossoms that are important to Japanese culture. For example, they have a saying that says that the sweets (eaten during viewing) are better than the cherry blossoms or it was considered honorable for a samurai to die on a field of sakura petals.

I love them anyway. The widest variety in at least the Tokyo area is lighter than the pink in the states and they remind me of snow. The feeling I get when looking at them is a lot like my feeling of looking outside and seeing snow. Its magical and takes your breath away. It is also so beautiful when the wind blows and the petals are blowing everywhere.

On Sunday I met Kana and Yuichi in Tokyo to go to Ueno park. The first pictures in the slide show are from there. We talked about going to a night viewing, but decided not to because we all had to work the next morning. (Kana had her first day of work teaching!!) Today I took some pictures at school. There is a large sakura tree in the courtyard. After work I walked to the park and took some of the most beautiful ones there. I really wanted some closeups.

Okay, enough talk. Here is the pictures: More cherry blossom pics