Hanami ~ Cherry Blossoms

Hanami means 'cherry blossom viewing.' It's one of the most popular events of Spring, and the most beautiful time to be in Japan! Crowds of people gather together and sit under the fully open cherry blossoms, usually on blue plastic tarps and have a picnic celebration. There is usually competition for the prime picnic spots, and people claim their spots by arriving early in the morning and sitting all day long until the celebrations begin.

Hanami celebrations always remind me of the 4th of July in the U.S. Families and friends get together to eat, drink, and just hang out during the day and then go to the best spots to see the fireworks at night. Hanami celebrations in Japan are similar to that and involve eating, drinking, hanging out, and getting the best spot possible to see the blooms, especially when they are lit up in the evening.

We went down to the Yamazaki-gawa River to see the blossoms lit up in the evening, and it was spectacular! Truly an amazing sight. There are approximately 720 cherry trees here!

When the cherry blossoms are fully bloomed it almost looks like snow. The walk down the river here was absolute gorgeous - both during the day and at night. The weather forecast was predicting the cherry trees to bloom late this year because it's been a fairly cold winter here... but lucky for us it warmed up quite a bit recently and the trees were in full bloom this past weekend. I would have been really disappointed if we would have missed them (because we are going to the U.S. this next weekend!).

Beautiful day, beautiful blooms, beautiful Japan! This is one of those moments where I look around and feel extremely fortunate to be living abroad and experiencing another culture. :) I ♥ Hanami!! I posted an album of Hanami cherry blossoms on our shutterfly site, enjoy!