Cherry blossoms for Japanese

Cherry blossoms are special for us Japanese. They are related to a feeling of the transience of life and therefore they are especially beautiful. The trunks of cherry trees are dark brown with rough surface, which looks like they are almost dead. Without the blossoms, they are far from beauty and in fact they are ugly for most of a year except for a couple of weeks in spring seasons. The blossoms suddenly come out just like a switch was turned on. The contrast of the bright blossoms and the dark branches are really beautiful, but after several days, they are all to fall. In most case, they are blown away by strong wind. It is the climax of the beauty because they look like storm and we call it "cherry blossoms storm." Unfortunately we can't see such beautiful cherry trees in Vancouver because the types of trees are different. They are more pink and stickier. Sure they are beautiful too, but they don't have the beauty of transience.

Comments

[kristin]

here in the washington, dc area, cherry blossoms are a very big deal. you can read about them here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/09/AR2006030901361.html "[This year] marks the 94th anniversary of the 1912 gift of trees from the city of Tokyo to the people of Washington."

there is a 2-week festival, and the city is swarmed by tourists and locals alike. here's a link to a photo as well: http://www.yale.edu/ytsa/photo/02_cherry_blossoms/cherry1.jpg

love your blog, by the way.

[mochi]

> kristin

Thanks for the information and photo about the cherry trees in Washington D.C. They look the same as Japanese cherry trees which I love best.