The beginning of April is cherry blossom time, sakura, here in Japan. The cherry blossoms are so beautiful! I have been looking forward to seeing sakura all year! I was able to get out and get some pictures which I will share with you in this post. Unfortunately the during the sakura season we had some yucky weather, so we weren't able to see as much as I had hoped.
One evening we went to Hikone Castle and after we got out of the car we heard some beautiful violin music. We thought they had speakers somewhere playing music, but once we got closer to the sakura, we found a man sitting under the trees playing his violin! It was a great experience, very classy.
You can't see him in this picture, but he is sitting under the tree, above the swan. I thought it was pretty nice for the swan to swim by as well, so I took a picture!
We took a few family pictures under the trees while the music played.
The cherry blossoms are so popular they are featured on the 100 yen coin.
The cherry blossoms around town bloomed at different times. The trees around Hikone Castle were some of the first ones we saw. This also meant they were the first to go too. The pictures below are the ones I took around Hikone Castle. There were many visitors to the castle during this time. Everyone was out to see the cherry blossoms!
You can go on a boat ride around the moat as you can see in this picture.
There are swans, ducks, and turtles that live in the water that are fun to watch.
When the trees lose their blossoms they fall into the water which is also very pretty. When the wind blows and the cherry blossoms fall, it looks like it is snowing. I've seen some parents shake the trees so the blossoms fall and their kids dance in the petals as they fall, very cute!
These people brought food and drinks to have a picnic under the blooming sakura, known as hanami. Hanami is a custom that has been celebrated for centuries. The practice of hanami began during the Nara period (710-794) and was restricted to the elite of the Imperial Court. Over time however, the custom spread to include everyone. As far as I could tell everyone seemed to be having a great time!
Here is a picture of the sakura in the evening at a park we go to.
I found some sakura along a river still in bloom after Hikone Castle was done. Here are some pictures of those.
It's a short walk from our house so I was able to take the kids to see it during the day while Jeff was at work. It is a bit of a hike for the kids to walk to Hikone Castle so we wait for Jeff and the car to visit it.
There's a little waterfall along the side of the river and there are flowers planted under the trees too. You can also see all the white cherry blossoms that have fallen in the water.
Here are some of the different types of sakura I have seen, all very beautiful!
The timeline to view the cherry blossoms is very short. They last only a few weeks before the flowers fall off and the leaves come in. Cherry blossoms symbolize mortality in the Japanese culture, very beautiful, but also very short lived.
Japanese pilots going on suicide missions would often paint cherry blossoms on the sides of their planes. The image was meant to represent the intensity and shortness of life. It was believed fallen soliders were reincarnated in the cherry blossoms.
I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about sakura and viewing the pictures. Perhaps we will plant some cherry trees around our new house to remind us of our time in Japan!
