Today's topic is hanami, which is basically "flower viewing." I realize that's an incredibly lame name, but that seems to be the popular translation, and also what the kanji mean, so you work with what you've got. I mentioned this in an earlier blog, but Japanese people love their cherry blossoms - sakura - and make a whole event out of it. Think of it like the Japanese version of July 4th, except instead of getting together in someone's backyard in the hot summer, you get together in the middle of the spring in the park. Tokyo doesn't have many large parks - although more than New York City, or so it seems - and the sakura only blossom for a very short period of time, which means that the entire population of the city (and a good portion of people who took the train in) gathers together inside Ueno Park - since it is the most famous park in Tokyo, though from what I understand not actually the place with the best sakura - within the span of one or two weekends. I unfortunately did not get a picture of this spectacle, because I ended up being fairly busy both weekends during the day. I did, however, manage to make my way there twice, once shortly before prime flower-viewing season, and actually once on the proper weekend, but not until late at night, so unfortunately the only pictures you get are from before the flowers were in full bloom.
To start things off, here's a picture of the entrance to Ueno Park. As you can see, the sakura tree is looking a bit shabby. Sorry about that!
Here's a close-up of the same tree. Unfortunately, most of the close-up pictures I took turned out blurry. Usually my camera behaves itself and takes some pretty nice shots, but I guess I got unlucky this time around.
This is a statue of Saigo Takamori, and is a very short walk inside the park. If you've seen the movie "The Last Samurai," Ken Watanabe's character 'Katsumoto' was loosely based off of Saigo. Things went down pretty similar to the movie, only without, you know, Tom Cruise. Saigo supported the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Restoration of the Meiji Emperor to power, but afterwards things didn't really fall into place the way he expected - for one thing, he felt that his home province of Satsuma had been cheated out of some of the spoils of victory. More importantly though, were the changes that the new Meiji government started to institute. Japan had been opened to the West, and the only way they would be able to avoid being ripped apart and semi-colonized the way China had been was to adapt. Actually, Saigo was a pretty liberal guy and supported almost all of the changes - except one. The abolishion of the samurai class didn't sit well with him, though it does seem that he became something of a rallying point for other samurai who also didn't like this idea and, having been essentially appointed the leader of the movement, he couldn't turn his back on them. Although in the movie, Katsumoto and his men are mowed down by the machine guns of the Imperial army as they charge in with swords, Saigo and his men were quite properly armed with modern weapons themselves, and put up a good fight. In the end, Saigo got shot in the thigh and couldn't move much anymore, so he and most of his officers committed ritual suicide, and that was the end of that. Pretty much right after his death, people decided Saigo was a cool guy, and so he got this statue here in Ueno Park. And that brings an end to today's history lesson. My memory's a bit foggy on a lot of the facts, since it's been a few years since I read up on him, so that's why there's quite a few generalizations in here, but if anyone's interested then I'd encourage you to read his story. Though I don't have much of a reason for it, I like to pay him a visit whenever I visit Japan if I have the chance, so if I remember, I'll post the picture I took the first time I met him. The years have been kind to Saigo, he hasn't changed at all.
Next up is a shot of the temple (or shrine, I can never tell the difference) inside of Ueno. It's taken at a "dramatic angle" because a normal shot looked kind of boring, and I'm doing this to cover up the fact that I don't actually have any photography skills.
In a bit of a departure from the usual street musician action, this fine chap has a puppet playing the violin instead. It was quite entertaining to watch, and he had a pretty large crowd gathered around him. I've actually seen him a few times around Tokyo; I feel like I should say "Hi" to him the next time I see him...
Another shot of the temple, the next stop on our tour.
You can get your fortune (o-mikuji) told when you visit, and if you don't like how it turned out (bad luck) you can tie it off to get rid of the bad luck. There are quite a few levels of luck, ranging from Super-cool-awesome Luck to being Cursed. From what I understand, getting normal old "Luck" is the best, and getting Super-cool-awesome Luck is kind of "Well I just used all my luck up right there..." but I think plain old "Well you have normal luck, so just try hard and maybe things will work out for you" is pretty boring. I'd rather be cursed, because at least it's interesting, but that's just me. And bad luck is better than NO luck, right? I got an o-mikuji about a month ago, and, surprise surprise, ended up with normal old luck. Yay. Well, hopefully if I keep ganbaru-ing I'll get my wish, right? I'll post a picture of it when we get to that part of the adventure, so judging by the recent state of my blog progress, you can look forward to that sometime in early 2010.
Moving along, we have a shot of the other side of the temple, which I think looks quite nice and peaceful. I quite like the bridge going from one building to the next, I want one of those in my house.
Next up we have the gong. Typically, you make a small offering and then make a wish and ring the bell or gong, and since Japanese people do this every time they visit a temple, you'd think they'd be good at it, but you'd be surprised at the number of people that epically fail at properly ringing the bell or clanging the gong. I don't know, maybe it's harder than it looks. I'd like to give it a try one day, but I'm a bit embarassed, and I don't really know the proper procedure of things...one of these days I'll have to ask a Japanese friend to explain how all of this works.
Next up are the famous torii gates. If you've ever seen pictures of "traditional" Japan, you've probably seen these before. They're quite impressive to see, and can go on for quite a while sometimes (another thing I'll need to get a Japanese friend to fill me in on) although if I'm fair, there are more beautiful and peaceful torii than the ones in Ueno Park.
One more picture of the torii for you all...
And now some more pictures of sakura for you. This picture didn't turn out so great, so be warned in advance if you decide to click on it for the large version...
Another one plagued by the semi-blurriness of the closest flowers...
And one last (blurry) photo of the day's hanami-ing.
Down by the lake of Ueno Park, it certainly seems somewhat out of place in Tokyo. This whole area was filled with matsuri-type food vendors when I went at night, which I unfortunately do not have any pictures of for you. I'll try harder next time.
One last picture that I took on my way back home. I'm not sure why, but I quite like stopping on this bridge and enjoying the view. Although I don't have much love for crowded cities and skyscrapers, they do have their points of peace and beauty. If I was a better photographer, I could convey this feeling for you, but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.
As a final word on hanami, I'll briefly detail what happened when I *did* go during prime-time hanami viewing season. As I said, it was night, but there were still an incredible number of people, which makes me wonder just how crowded the park must have been during the daytime. One thing I wish I'd taken pictures of, aside from the flowers, and the crowds, was the sheer amount of garbage everywhere. There were garbage bins every twenty feet or so, and when I say "garbage bins" I mean "landfills in miniature." It was quite impressive, in a garbage kind of way. There were also obscene numbers of completely drunk-off-their-faces Japanese people. I can understand wanting to sit under the flowers, and even having a few drinks with some friends, but some of these people took it a little too far. If nothing else though, I suppose it was an interesting spectacle, though personally I'd want to enjoy the sakura in a bit more peace and quiet. Continuing past all the drunk party I got to the food vendor section, which was quite awesome. Pretty much any kind of Japanese or Korean junk food you can imagine was available for the buying, though these places can be a bit expensive if you actually stop to consider the price...but where's the fun in that? I'll try to take some pictures the next time I go to a matsuri, since they're quite interesting if you've never seen one. I suppose the best thing I could compare it to would be a community fair or series booths at a carnival, but do we even have carnivals in the US anymore? I remember going to them as a child, but haven't been to one in a long time, and I'm pretty sure my sisters have never gone.
Well, that should wrap things up for today I think. Hopefully this blog post will appease my demanding friend (you know I'm just kidding ;) ) and entertained the rest of you faithful readers as well. Once again, you have my apologies for not being a faithful author, but, if it is some small consolation, I did take quite a few pictures for this blog, so hopefully there will be another update relatively soon. Thank you again for reading, and welcome back!
