Sakura

Springtime in Japan is awesome. Really great weather. Japan has a very similar climate to DC, so the winters are bone-chillingly cold and in the summer you can go for a swim without jumping into the water. The sticky humidity here in Japan made for some interesting practices, especially when you add in the fact that there is no air conditioning in the gyms. But having extreme weather in the summer and winter brings some advantages. Spring and fall are absolutely gorgeous. Just today I made guacamole and sat out by the lake under the sakura in the 80 degree weather.

I had never heard of Sakura until I went to school in DC. Washington is pretty famous for it's cherry blossoms, drawing more than 700,000 visitors a year to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Basically, I thought DC had some kickass cherry blossom trees.

Until I came to Japan.

The sakura here in Japan are phenomenal. They are ubiquitous, and their size range is much more variable than the DC trees. I have seen trees twice the size of the biggest trees I saw in DC. The sakura also are very special to the Japanese people, so there are a few traditions that go along with them. The most famous tradition is called hanami. It boils down to sitting under the sakura and drinking beer. The second part of the tradition is that the girls of the group prepare a picnic. My kind of tradition!

On our last off-day, Ryan (other tall white guy), Mike (red checkered shirt), Su (red track jacket) and myself traveled to the Kano river in Kyoto to...look at sakura and drink beer. Mike's girlfriend came along with some of her friends. So the girls made (great) homemade Japanese food and we hung out on the river all day. It turned out to be a pretty nice day if you like 75 degree weather without a cloud in the sky. Everyone, with the exception of Su, made the mistake of wearing jeans. It was a bitterly bitched about point all day.

The next night I went to this famous bhuddist temple in my city called Miidera. About 7 times older than the United States, Miidera is set on a big mountain overlooking Lake Biwako. It's about a ten minute bike ride from my apartment. I hadn't been there yet, but during Sakura season it's free. They also illuminate the Sakura, so it's a pretty sweet place.