WHEN: Late March through Early April in the Kanto Plain
WHERE: In parks and along rivers all over Japan
April in Japan is cherry blossom time. People who have never lived in Japan are likely to think "big deal"; but if you've spent an April in Japan, you'll know that it really is a big deal here.
The Japanese are simply mad about their cherry blossom festivals, called sakura matsuri (sakura=cherry blossom), and the accompanying o-hanami, or cherry blossom viewing. If you have arrived in Japan less than a year ago, you are unlikely to have witnessed anything quite like o-hanami season, except perhaps in Washington, D.C., where a fair representation of a Japanese sakura matsuri has sprung up around some cherry trees given to the U.S. by Japan some time ago.
The mania for cherry blossoms on the main island of Honshu usually sets in around mid-March, when the national meteorological center starts broadcasting bloom predictions in earnest. (In fact, the blooms have come and gone in Okinawa by late January, but "mainland" Japanese don't pay much attention to that.)
The timing of the blossoms' arrival is impeccable. April is the month when the new school year starts for Japanese children and it's also the month when companies start their new business years and when many new college graduates start to work. Radio and TV programs begin their new seasons as well. It is, in short, a time for change.
So the cherry blossoms have become synonymous with new beginnings in the Japanese collective psyche. And o-hanami parties provide a welcome break from the stress that change brings - unless you are one of those aforementioned new graduates just starting at a big company. You see, as the new lowest person on the totem pole of rank-conscious corporate Japan, the new faces are almost universally handed the task of arranging the office o-hanami party, from securing the location to procuring the gobs of food and booze required for such a shindig. This gives them a reason to have meetings with last year's planners and generally get involved in the company right out of the chute. It also gives them a chance to start working on that ulcer they're likely to have by the time Golden Week rolls around.
So what do people do at o-hanami? If you're picturing people strolling through a park looking at blossoms, you're a wee bit off. Certainly people do some strolling, but it's not the first thing that comes to mind when a Japan veteran thinks o-hanami. Think instead of an outdoor rock festival, minus the bands and surrounded by the most stunning display of pink-white blossoms imaginable.
