サクラサク：Cherry blossom

いやあ、日本の春って、本当にいいものですね。新しい何かが弾け出てくるような新鮮さと言うか、初々しさがあります。新緑と共にフレッシュ スタートをきり、自然と同調して暮らしているのですよね。

Japanese spring is special. It is a time of fresh starts. New appointments or school years start on April 1st. People are living in annual cycles similar to those of plants and others in nature.




そんな季節の象徴と言えばさくらなのですが、これは開花の時期的にも、期間限定のはかなさが物事の始まりや終わりを意味するように感じられる点でも、ぴったりなわけですよね。

Cherry blossom is the symbol of such starts (and ends, perhaps, because of falling of the petals). In most places cherries flower in late March or early April, just about when people close or open one chapter of their lives. You can find many of them in school yards and along the river, etc.



今年はさくらが見事だったようです。満開が晴天続きでずいぶん長く楽しめた、とか。花見も盛り上がったようです。ああ、夜桜等見に行きたいです。

In the heights of the bloom, people go for a special kind of picnics called "HANAMI (literally, 'flower watch')." It has become rather an excuse to get full and drunk than anything else, but the tradition can be nice. You can do it either during day or night. Cherry blossom at night is particularly beautiful.