A week crept by normalizing things in Tokyo. Business crawls forward for Japan. The first steps to rebuilding starts with moving forward. Today, the weather was fair and more Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) buds are showing on the cherry trees. The early bloomers came a few weeks ago. These were sparse, albeit beautiful but somehow out of place. The main flood of blossoms will appear soon. Within the next ten days Tokyo will be filled with clouds of white and light pink flowers. I wonder what this year’s bloom will be met with. Will the locals celebrate as in other years? Here the celebrations are called “Hanami.” It’s essentially a traditional picnic with an open bar. Underneath the overhanging flowers, groups gather on mats. Drinking, eating, laughing, sleeping, singing, and forgetting their troubles.Parks, gardens, and nearly any place these flowers are present will be invaded by masses celebrating. People collect under large canopies of flora or even under a tree with only a few branches and sparse blossoms. Diverse may the amount of fauna be, the merriment is equal. I don’t think the Sakura this year will not be met with silence. But I do wonder what these pedals will hear in the conversations beneath them. I’m sure this year there will be laughter and I’m sure there certainly will be tears. I believe the celebrations are important and that normalizing is a good thing. It means getting back up, dusting yourself off, and then continuing on. Take a step for each other and take these steps with each other.
The Sakura have a very symbolic meaning here. They represent life and death. They represent life’s delicate existence and it’s brevity. They appear for only one week. They are taken by winds and rain. They fall like snow and vanish. Only the memory of their beauty remains until the cycle returns again. The flowers come from non distinct trees. Throughout the year these trees are plain and nearly unnoticed. They are dark with knobby gnarled branches. But when the flowers emerge, it’s beauty unexpected.
They are greeted with the changing seasons. When winter resigns the days grow longer and the warming weather moves from south to north. The flowers appear with these changes. Making their way from the warmer southern most island and prefectures of Japan to the northern most island. They are like a wave moving gently northward. Each place they visit, people celebrate, welcome the spring, and for a brief period neglect their woes. I hope that by the time they make it north this year; things will have normalize enough so that the people there too can have a reason to celebrate, reflect, and move forward with us. Sakura are a great symbol they teach us that life is brief and to live it to the fullest.
Linh Vien Thai is Amerasian, born in Dalat, South Vietnam, where he continued to lived during the war. He left for the U.S. and is now an American living in Tokyo. He enjoys adventure traveling and doing what’s right to make the world a better place.
