Spring in Japan: Sakura Season and Hanami in Kyoto!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

One quite particular thing about the Japanese culture, is how they like things that are pretty, but at the same time things that are fragile or fugitive, or in other ways imperfect. Perhaps that is why they like the sakura 桜 (cherry blossom) so much.. Every year the trees brings new and beautiful flowers, but the flowers only lasts for a couple of weeks, until their petals falls to the ground. If there is a heavy rain the long-awaited hanami might even get washed away along with the flowers. The sakura is a sign of spring, and Japanese people (as well as us foreigners) likes to gather in parks/shrines/etc to drink with friends and watch the pretty flowers. This event is called hanami, and it literarily means to "look at flowers" (花見). Like last year I have already been to a couple of hanami-events, and the pictures in this blog is from the hanami I went to with the Study in Kyoto Program (SKP)-students in the Maruyama-park (円山公園) behind Yasaka Jinja.

Compared to last year the sakura flowers bloomed really late, so I didn't get that many good shots this time. Anyway, thanks for reading my post, I'll be back with more soon;)

Sakura over a gate in Gion

One of the traditional streets in Gion

During hanami there are a lot of stalls where one can by small portions of different types of Japanese food, such as takoyaki, okonomiyaki, etc etc. Here is the stalls + the sakura

Nanzen-ji 南禅寺

Students ready for hanami

A group picture with some of my fellow students

Another 集合写真 with more or less all the hanami participants

The Yasaka-jinja exit

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Osaka

All blogposts from Kyoto

All blogposts about hotels

All blogposts from Japan

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave me a comment or question below!
~Anette

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.

About Me

A modern-day shield-maiden who loves to explore the unbeaten paths of the world. From her base in Tokyo, Anette takes on both rural and urban challenges, and on her path, she has overcome anything from natural wilderness and cultural barriers to commuting in overcrowded Tokyo trains.

Life is too short to be stuck on one page, and this mindset reflects the diversity of Anette’s blog.
Besides being a career woman she is also a globetrotter, with 39 countries and counting.
No challenge too big, no adventure too small!

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