I’ve been having another great week in Japan. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I attended hanami on three separate occasions at Hirosaki park. Situated in the northeastern portion of Hirosaki, the park is home to about 2600 cherry trees, which all have spectacularly blossomed. I’ve been told that over the course of “Golden Week” (which happens next week), about 2 million people will pass through Hirosaki park. I will now do as many other gaijin already have and cover my blog here with photos of pink trees.
My first experience with hanami has been a great one. The sakura (cherry blossoms) started coming into bloom over the course of last weekend and came into full bloom earlier this week, a bit ahead of schedule. I’d been looking for an opportunity to go with some people and check out the park and I was glad when I ran into Alex and JJ on the street while biking home from the Beni-mart with Lim and Yeong. The mentioned that a student named Shun would be having a sobetsukai, or farewell party, since he would be going away to Canada to study. Apparently, he’s pretty active with the foreign students and it would mainly be them throwing the party at the park.
The next night I headed over to the main gate of the park. It was the busiest I’d seen the park before - people were pouring in and out in droves and the flashes from so many cameras lit up the night. I added my own to the bunch. Here is a shot of the moat just outside the park:
The view of the flowers from outside the park was amazing. I hadn’t even gone inside yet and I was already thunderstruck by how gorgeous everything looked. There was an explosion of pink all around me, every little sakura bloom almost looking like a carefully-crafted paper cutout.
As I would soon find out, the view from the outside was just a taste. It was about to become a whole lot more beautiful inside.
We were to meet around seven that evening and then get the party started. I was waiting for a short bit when Melanie showed up, one of the students from New Zealand. She said that everyone would be meeting up across the street at the city hall, so we made our way over. Sure enough, about five minutes later Shun and a group of people came up to meet us, among them Thai students I recognized from the Kaikan. We said our hellos, after which we parked our bikes and headed into the park.
The scene was throughly Japanese. The large gates of the park opened up to a tunnel of sakura trees, the boughs criss-crossing above the wide path before me. Despite it being night, all the trees were well lit.
I snapped shot after shot. Most of them didn’t come out very well because of the darkness, but I did manage to get a few decent ones. I kept apologizing to the group, because I felt I was holding everyone up with the huge amount of video and pictures I was taking. But I wanted to capture everything I was seeing. We soon passed a set of vendors, crying out “irrashamasse!” at the people passing by. This, combined with soft shamisen music playing out of speakers made for a scene you always imagine as being in movies or something. But this was the real deal and it was all the more breathtaking because of it.
Next up was the crown jewel of the park, Hirosaki Castle. I had seen it before a couple times, but with all the sakura it made for a truly photogenic scene. I did the best I could with my little camera. The bridge that you stand on to view the castle was absolutely packed with people. In fact, the whole place was crowded and I had yet to see the massive collection yatai (vendor booths) on the other side of the park.
Because it was getting on fairly late, it was free to take the path to go up behind the castle. Usually, there is a small fee to go through the gate. Up behind the castle was an expanse of green grass, trees and people spread out everywhere on blankets and tarps. We found a good spot near the middle. Melanie mentioned that she was hungry, so me, her and a couple others went down a path behind us to all the vendors. The place was filled with noise and light, vendors yelling and food cooking everywhere. I got some great video of this, along with the rest of the park and the sobetsukai:
I ended up buying a banana covering in chocolate on a stick, which was recommended to me. I had already eaten some dinner so I didn’t want anything too much to eat, but it was delicious. Soon enough, we made our way back to the place and everyone had arrived. There were mostly students from the kaikan, but there were also many Japanese people in attendance as well. I ended talking a long while with a girl named Takako about music. I brought out my trusty iPod and we got to the listening. She was really interested in music from foreign countries, so I played some Nightwish, Radiohead, Boards of Canada, Amon Tobin, and some Rustic Overtones from my own home state to top it off. All in all it was a very relaxed night under the sky and sakura.
A couple days before, I promised to Ayano that I would go with her friend to check out the park, so that’s what I did the following day. Ayano was one of the students that I met with back in March and was a conversation partner for. Hojin wanted to come along too, so it ended up being the four of us. I got some really good Japanese practice in that night, in addition to touring more of the park. I also tried out takoyaki for the first time, which are these fried dough balls filled with octopus meat. With a bit of mayonnaise poured on top, it was absolutely delicious. It came in this little box and you ate it with toothpicks. Here’s a picture I got with Ayano and Hojin on the bridge in front of the castle:
The next night, Thursday, I had my first meeting with my new club, the adventure club. It was in a classroom on the second story of the building where I go to all my classes. The meeting was the first one of the year so it was mostly going over plans for the upcoming weeks ahead. Ise, one of the members of the club (who was the one dancing around in the video I made of last weekend’s rafting trip) helped me out with all the paper work that was being distributed. There is also a tradition of having all the new members stand up in front of the club and introduce themselves, in addition to being asked questions. When my turn came around, I went up to the board and wrote my name. Everyone seemed to be impressed that I used katakana instead of English letters.
“Watashi wa Jyou desu! Tankenbu o haitai desu!“
I was asked some basic questions about where I was from and what I was studying, but I also got a question from Takahiro about my favorite writing utensil. Afterwards, a vote was held to see if I should be accepted and I was in with 100% in favor. Afterwards, we headed out for a club nomikai (approximately “drinking party” in English) at the nearby Hapachi, the same bar I’d been to before for a couple other nomikai. I chatted with Ise throughout the night, mostly about differences between English and Japanese. It was a fun night overall with my new club. I would be seeing them again soon on Saturday afternoon for hanami.
The following day, I was heading out to the city hall after school to pick up my alien registration card when I ran into Gan and a couple of his friends. They happened to heading out there too for the same reason, so we all decided to go together. I’m now a true card-carrying gaijin! After picking up the cards, we headed out to this place near Hapachi for some dinner. It was this really great place, a little shop with a counter and a couple tables and a takeout window. It was filled with signs from the different clubs at Hirosaki University. Gan and I ordered these huge plates of fried chicken, rice, miso soup and salad. The best part was it only cost 600 yen, making the best value by I had come across by far.
Later that night, I headed out to this place called Yuko, a bar in the same area as Hapachi. Hojin had been planning to have people go out Friday night for some drinks. Lim came along with me and we soon ran into Hojin and Masumitsu, Gan’s tutor. Unfortunately, Gan wouldn’t be able to make it, but soon enough we had a good group of people. Of course, we had to get some pictures together:
And here’s a bit of video, giving you the insider’s view of a bar in Japan:
The following night was the hanami with my club. I met up with a couple of the girls at the bushitsu (club room), including Koba who is one of the senior club members. We headed out at around 5 in the afternoon and when we showed up a good number of people were already there. At around 6, the toasts were made, “kanpai!” was yelled and we started drinking. In Japan, it is totally legal to consume alcoholic beverages in a public place like a park. Everyone around us was doing the same, laughing and cheering each other. I discovered that there is this little speech type thing you do on occasions such as this, where you yell out your high school, your name, your address and then after drink the drinks that are handed to you. I did it too and it was pretty fun. I’ll have to say, I drank quite a bit that night. I also ran into some guys from the U.S. Air Force up for the weekend. We chatted for a bit and laughed at a guy wearing nothing but boxers and drinking from a massive bowl to the cheers and yelps of his friends. Here’s a photo of some of us at the height of the merriment:
This coming week is Golden Week, so I will only have classes on days when there is no holiday. The first day off will be Tuesday, as it will be showa no hi , or Emperor’s Day, celebrating the birthday of the former emperor. I’ll be going to some events at the nearby Fujisaki town, including a kite festival, so you’ll definitely be hearing about that! Well, until next time!
P.S. - Here’s a great article about curry, one of my favorite Japanese foods.
