{"id":72,"date":"2009-04-19T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2009-04-19T21:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=72"},"modified":"2018-07-27T17:42:37","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T17:42:37","slug":"hanami-%e3%81%af%e3%81%aa%e3%81%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/hanami-%e3%81%af%e3%81%aa%e3%81%bf\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanami (\u306f\u306a\u307f)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hanami (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u82b1\u898b<\/strong><\/span>) means &#8220;flower viewing&#8221; in Japanese.\u00a0 The springtime is the prime season for viewing flowers, especially sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) flowers.\u00a0 Sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) is a cherry blossom.\u00a0 They are pinkish and grow on trees.\u00a0 Every year, people all over Japan set out some time in their busy schedules to have an outdoor party amongst the sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) flowers.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a time for co-workers, romantic couples and families to gather together and enjoy the outdoors and the company of others.\u00a0 Usually people bring some kind of blanket or mat to sit on, some sake, and some food.\u00a0 It&#8217;s kind of like an American picnic.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re probably wondering, why is the sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) so fascinating to Japanese people?\u00a0 Sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) flowers wither away almost as soon as they bloom.\u00a0 For centuries, the sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) flower has been the metaphor for life.\u00a0 To the Japanese, life is considered transient, ephermal, or short lived.\u00a0 It&#8217;s kind of depressing, but at the same time it makes you realize how precious life is.\u00a0 Sometimes, the sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) is used as a metaphor for youth as well.\u00a0 To the Japanese, youth is fleeting and that&#8217;s what makes it so bitter sweet.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: left\" src=\"http:\/\/www.keikei-project.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/1099175884.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/>Speaking of youth, sometimes you&#8217;ll see a group of college students gathering under the sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) trees at night.\u00a0 When the gathering is at night it&#8217;s called yozakura (<strong>\u3088\u3056\u304f\u3089<\/strong>), which literally means &#8220;night sakura&#8221;. Colored lanterns are hung everywhere, which makes the atmosphere just as beautiful as the daytime.\u00a0 The most popular hanami (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u82b1\u898b<\/strong><\/span>) spot is Ueno park (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u4e0a\u91ce\u516c\u5712<\/strong><\/span>).\u00a0 Of course, any place with sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) flowers will do.\u00a0 Most people just want to socialize, but they do it under the pretense of viewing flowers.\u00a0 There&#8217;s no exact day per say for hanami (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u82b1\u898b<\/strong><\/span>), but it&#8217;s usually held when the weather is nice; sometime around March, April, or May.<\/p>\n<p>If you live on the east coast of the U.S., you might be interested to know that Philadelphia hosts a cherry blossom festival every year.\u00a0 That&#8217;s the only place in the U.S. that I&#8217;m aware of that hosts a sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) festival.\u00a0 Wherever you are in the world, if there&#8217;s a sakura (<strong>\u3055\u304f\u3089<\/strong>) festival near you, write a comment in the comments section.\u00a0 Thanks everyone, I&#8217;m heading out now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hanami (\u82b1\u898b) means &#8220;flower viewing&#8221; in Japanese.\u00a0 The springtime is the prime season for viewing flowers, especially sakura (\u3055\u304f\u3089) flowers.\u00a0 Sakura (\u3055\u304f\u3089) is a cherry blossom.\u00a0 They are pinkish and grow on trees.\u00a0 Every year, people all over Japan set out some time in their busy schedules to have an outdoor party amongst the sakura&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/hanami-%e3%81%af%e3%81%aa%e3%81%bf\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2722,2824],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-hanami","tag-sakura"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6250,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/6250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}