Hanami - the great tradition of flower viewing parties

Spring has finally arrived. And with it the wonderful Japanese tradition of Hanami - flower viewing parties. According to Shannon, some Meiji Era Emperor who really liked his booze started the tradition of hanami (along with moon viewing parties, fireworks in summer, dozens of festivals, and more) as an excuse to drink more. Whatever the history of the tradition, it is celebrated today with friends and family, on grass under cherry blossom and plum trees, with picnic food, festival food, and lots and lots of beer. This weekend Shannon and I had our own hanami, but with less booze and way more travel. Saturday we started our journey, heading down to Hyogo-ken to see the cherry blossoms at Himeji Castle. It was the perfect blend of beauty, fun, and festivities, teaming up the glories of spring with the fabulousness of food-on-a-stick.

Then today we hopped yet another train from Osaka to Kyoto to check out the flowers in the Imperial Palace Park and in the Gion area. It was absolutely phenomenal beautiful. We walked for hours, fought the crowds for pictures and walking space, enjoyed more sakura specialties (sakura ice cream, yum) though less food-on-a-stick, and had a great day. Yes, i'm officially exhausted. Yes, my camera battery is dead. Yes, i have a million pictures of trees and flowers that look virtually the same. Yes, even after a long bath my feet are still aching. But given the fact that the flowers will be falling in a few days, it was so worth it.