Cherry blossoms and hanami

On such a cold, wet saturday afternoon I wish I was in Japan. I have never experienced a real Japanese hanami, but I really wish I could. Maybe next year I will be able to do it. Spring in Japan seems like a lovely time and hanami is one of the beautiful reasons why. 

Every spring in Japan the many cherry trees, called 'sakura' (桜), bloom and people go sit close to the sakura while they talk, drink alcohol, and eat snacks. Hanami (花見) actually means flower viewing and that is basically what people do around the cherry trees.

Because Japan is such a big country the cherry trees around the country bloom at different times. As you can see below, the sakura around Hokkaido (Northern Japan) doesn't bloom until the beginning of May while the sakura on Honshu (main island) bloom in the end of March. So there's a very big difference between north and south of Japan. The cherry trees normally doesn't bloom for a very long time (around a couple of weeks) so you have to be quick and go see them while you can.

We actually have sakura trees in Denmark and here in Aarhus we have a couple of trees in Botanical Garden near the centre of the city. The last two years people from the university have held a hanami event with Japanese snacks, alcohol, and hygge, and we plan to do it again this year. Even in Aarhus the sakura trees are beautiful, but they bloom much later than in Japan. Maybe it's because of the Danish weather and long winters...

As you can see below, just like sakura the weather was great the first time we held hanami. 

Even though I haven't tried hanami in Japan yet, it seems like there are many different kinds of sakura flavored food in Japan at this time of year. One of my favorite YouTubers made a video about McDonald's cherry blossom burgers and sakura cherry float and there a plenty more videos out there about sakura flavored food. 食べてみたい！

Anyway, if you ever come to Japan in the spring be sure to take a look at all the beautiful cherry trees all over the country. At YouTube I found an amazing video that shows some of the beautiful sakura in Tokyo. Isn't it beautiful? I really makes me want to go to Japan now! 

You can read more about the Japanese tradition of hanami here.

Thanks for reading my blog, and please let me know your hanami experience or what you think about this Japanese tradition. またね。