Cherry Blossoms

Today we went cherry blossom viewing (Hanami) in Iidabashi. Hanami is the spring cherry blossoms festival, an ostensibly civilized excuse to get rip roaring drunk on sake under the cherry trees.

We took our obentos (boxed lunches) to the stretch of blossoms along the river and ate in peace and quiet with hundreds of other merry revelers.

Hanami can be a bit unpredictable; the blooms only last a week or so, and this year they came a few weeks early which put Japan- an otherwise perfectly-timed machine - into an uncontrollable spin of confusion. Furthermore, Hanami has been tainted by rain and wind which blew most of the flowers off within a day or two.

Cherry blossoms aside, the atmosphere of a Hanami festival is something else. Vendors (Yakuza-run?) had set up open food stalls called 'yatai' which sold all kinds of goodies - mini okonomiyakis, barbequed fish on skewers, yaki-tori, oden (filled dumplings cooked in water) and of course, enough beer and sake to water a small country. The colourful facades of the yatai, the jaunty pink, red and white paper lanterns strung up everywhere and the blossoms which created a pink and white ceiling over the eating area, made for a stunning vista.