Sakura season

Most of my free time recently has been spent doing 花見 (cherry blossom viewing), whether it be at local parks, small clearings or near Kumamoto Castle. This year was special, as roads usually closed due to earthquake damage were specially opened for the season. 

The Japanese really do believe that they signify new beginnings, and to see the development in the castle restoration around this time of year surely brought some sense of hope to the locals with their fighting spirit. 

That’s one thing I love about everyone here; their utter embodiment of the phrase 頑張ろう熊本.

A complete juxtaposition to the delicate beauty of the sakura, was the Aso Fire Festival. This festival consists of various events over two months, but at the end of March we attended the fire swinging ceremony.
This Shinto rituals’ roots are based upon the twelve Gods who live in Aso Shrine. One of them, Kumitatsunokami, is the guardian of agriculture, and people hold a bale of hay (tied by rope) and swing it around their heads for a productive harvest. 

Suffice to say that health and safety would have a field day, with bales of hay flying into the groups of photographers cowering in the line of fire. I have to admit though, I released my inner cowgirl that night and thoroughly enjoyed the sense of danger and chaotic atmosphere of the whole occasion.

 

Sometimes the hype over the sakura can seem a bit much, and I usually don’t go to out of my way to see it. I find that it’s the places you stumble across accidentally are the ones that are the most beautiful; something I found on a visit to Tamana this past weekend. 

After brunch in a rustic café, we took a stroll along the riverside. Later we headed to Jagatani Park, where we headed to the top of the mountain to reach the observation area, walking through tons of beautiful cherries on the way up, and zooming past them on a giant slide on the way back down. 

In the late afternoon the four of us played some weird combination of crazy golf and croquet, and as the wind picked up the petals starting blowing all around us. We finished the trip with a dip in the local onsen, watching the sunset overlooking the Tamana countryside and the Ariake Sea.

With some rainy weather in store over the next few days, it’s safe to say that soon the delicate sakura petals will be scattered across the ground. It’ll mean the end to this year’s cherry blossom season, but what a season it’s been.

花見

In a blink of an eye, this year’s cherry blossom in Kumamoto has disappeared, almost as fast as it bloomed. There’s something I find so visually compelling during this season, when for around two weeks, the places you know so well suddenly transform into bustling havens of white and blush pink.

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This year the season was a little earlier, and quite frankly stunning. Apologies to my parents who came all the way to Japan last year to catch a pretty mediocre bloom… looks like they’ll just have to come back another time. Days spent chasing the smallest buds around the country last year were replaced with glorious blossoms scattered everywhere throughout spring break.

I’m lucky to work so close to Kumamoto Castle this time of year, meaning I could fully enjoy the sakura on my lunch break. Nothing beats visiting some small food stalls alongside the river, to sit and watch the wind blow the delicate petals around you. 

I took an evening trip to Honmyoji Temple with Kohei too. We watched the sunset, but I also experienced yozakura (night time cherry blossom viewing) for the first time. The sakura was stunning in a completely different way, almost glowing in the moonlight. It’s a shame that this season is so fleeting, but that’s part of the magic.

I did hanami (flower viewing) whenever I could, spending most of my days or afternoons off visiting the castle grounds. Usually complete with a makeshift picnic blanket and lots of alcohol. The castle restoration is showing signs of progress, with 7200 tiles recently replacing the roof, allowing the temporary cover to be removed. 

I think the blooming sakura is somewhat representative of the resilience of Kumamoto and its people.  Although it may be delicate, it brings people together through tough times and keeps coming back. In this year’s case, brighter and more abundant than before.

Strawberry picking & saying goodbyes.

It’s finally edging towards spring in Kumamoto (despite pleas from my delicate pale skin), which means its strawberry galore. Thanks to Clare’s host mum, both Sheridan and I were invited along for an afternoon of strawberry picking in nearby Ueki.

Despite not being what I imagined (inside little greenhouses rather than immense fields of strawberries), it was a great day out and I’m looking forward to even more fruit picking in the future. The highlight for me was befriending some of the cutest children I’ve ever seen, who had picked some strawberries bigger than they were.

Fruit in Japan is one of the things that can sometimes be ridiculously expensive; just yesterday I saw a watermelon going for almost ¥8,000 (about £55). To put that into perspective, my day ticket to Tokyo DisneyLand costs less. However, I’ve never eaten such flavourful strawberries in my life, and I’m definitely a convert. I’m even branching out in my baking; this week I made a white chocolate matcha cake in my rice cooker for Sheridan’s birthday, topped with said strawberries, which was rather yummy if I do say so myself.

As the title suggests, I had some goodbyes to make this week too. I attended my first junior high school graduation ceremony, and although I’ve only taught my 3^rd graders for just over 6 months, it was actually pretty sad. So many little personalities I’ve grown to love will no longer brighten my day. To name a few:

• The kid who always showed me his socks because it stressed me out when he insisted on wearing knee high ones in summer.
• The kid who told me he loved me every day, proposed to me one lunchtime, told me the service was at 6am the next day and now we’re married.
• The kid who insisted I called him Goripanman (Gorilla + Anpanman) and it took me months to learn his actual name.
• The kid who was equally as clumsy as me during cleaning time, and we’d bond cleaning up our messes and whispering about Hello Kitty and K-pop.
• The kid that warmed to me when he learnt I listen to ONE OK ROCK, then spent ages talking about the new album and how he was studying English harder to understand it all.
• The wonderful bright soul who would always be beaming from ear to ear, who wrote me a beautiful goodbye note and never failed to energise me with her infectious smile.
• The kid I didn’t know cared so much, but came to me after graduation tearful, gave me a hug, and helped me get all of these pictures with students that I would have never seen again otherwise.

What I realised was just how much I love my 2^nd graders, and how much of a mess I’ll be when they graduate next year. God help me if I stay here for the full 5 years; kids I started teaching in elementary school this year will be graduating junior high… I’ll probably feel like I’ve lost about 180 of my own children.