The magic of cherry blossoms in Japan

There is something magical about Sakura (cherry blossom) season in Japan.
The origins of the magic go back many years in history to the early 700s. In Japanese culture these blossoms have been linked to “the cycle of life, death and rebirth, on the one hand, and of productive and reproductive powers, on the other”. Click here for a more in-depth analysis of the history of cherry blossoms in Japan.

Here in Japan you can actually feel the anticipation growing. As Shelley and I bicycled around the city all fall and winter we noticed where there were concentrations of cherry trees. We catalogued those areas in our minds to make sure we revisited them during the peak blossom time. 

My ride to school is mainly along the Zen Pu Kuji river, a river lined with cherry trees. In early March every day as I bicycled through the cold and the early morning darkness I would check out the trees and buds to see whether there was any progress towards blossoms. 

There is even a web-site here in Japan that tracks the progress of the blossoms just in case you want to book a trip to see the earlier blossoms down South. Click here for that info.

And finally that day arrives... the blossoms begin bursting. Word flies around quickly where the first blooms in Tokyo can be found. (This year it was just outside the gate of the Imperial Palace).

Then, hooray... they began appearing on my commute:

Suddenly I found way more people out along the river during my early morning commute. More than the usual intense runners and fitness walkers, I began seeing couples young and old walking under the trees, holding hands, looking up at the blossoms and seeming to be quite entranced by the moment. The dog walkers (or those pushing their dogs in little prams!) seemed to be chattier with other dog owners than usual.

As the day progresses, more and more people come out to enjoy the blossoms and each others" company. All around Japan this builds up to a crescendo of Hanami, Hanami is a social gathering with office mates, family members, friends that involves lots of food, lots of drinks and lots of talk and laughter. It is quite an amazing site to see as we ride by with our bikes.

Check for the blue tarps on the ground and that is always the clue of up-coming Hanami at  that spot. This morning people were getting their tarps out at 7:30 AM when I rode by.

From the few scattered tarps the pace builds up to more tarps... and people...

Until by evening time it is packed!!!!

To fully experience the power of the sakura, its effect on people and joy of Hanami last weekend I rode to one of the famous rives, the Megura, where the banks of the river are lined with cherry trees for several kilometres. This area is a magnet for Hanami and strollers.

It was crowded with strolling couples, photographers and families enjoying the blossoms. There were so many people that every intersection had 4 security guards to ensure that pedestrians would not block car traffic.

All of the trees were laden with blossoms... the perfect weekend to see them. 

 Just for evidence here is a selfie. If the Pope can do it...

The whole river was lined with lanterns to provide the beautiful evening light for the strollers.

Along with the lights, the river was lined with little booths that provided all kinds of easy snacks and tasty goodies to nibble on as you walked and... only in Japan, champagne glasses (yes, made out of glass) filled with champagne and fresh strawberries that you could stroll down the river with to help your enjoyment. You just returned the glass to your booth for a deposit. Pretty pleasant, eh? 

Our great DD program assistant organized our very own DD/ English department Hanami for those of us who could come to bring this celebration to our Canadian International School world. This event brought together both our Japanese colleagues and our international staff. We also had a great time laughing, telling stories, lying on the blue tarp, admiring the quickly disappearing blossoms and eating and drinking.

At one point the wind started blowing and the air was filled with gently drifting blossom petals falling in our glasses, onto our food and into our hair:

We kept having our very own cherry blossom petal storm covering all of the surfaces:

By next week the blossoms will be gone and we will be fully enjoying the gentle leaves of early spring, one of the most pleasant seasons in Tokyo.

This is a very special time of year in Japan. 

Friends across the ocean and the years

We lived in central China in a city called Zhengzhou 21 years ago. Our two little girls were three and five years old at the time. We had a fascinating two years time there and since then our life has been rich and full. We have gone to many fun, different, and exciting things in a variety of places around the world. Our daughters a grown-up. Sarah is now 28, Helen is 27 years old.

Due to my sister Cathy's work on my father's journals and photographs from during the revolution in China, Cathy, Shelley, and I decided to revisit that area in China. More in a later blog.

21 years is a long time. During that time in the early years we kept in touch on a yearly basis with our Chinese friends. That lasted about five years and then slowly we have lost contact. We arrived in the city not really sure when we would see.

We were totally honored, amazed, and thrilled to find many, many friends who still remembered us and more excited to see us. Every day I was there, we ended up with feasts both at lunch and at dinner provided by some other group of friends, or one of the schools that we worked at.

Our visit to China was a reminder to us how Human connection is the glue that keeps the world together. It is our one on one Human caring, laughter, sharing that bridges the gulf created by politics and war.

We often hear about the scary, difficult, harsh, in human actions around the world. China is often in the news about human rights violations.

These series of photographs are our opportunity to share some of the lovely human contacts and friends we have in China. These are faces to the statistics that we all read about or hear about or see in the news.

Mr. Du Ben Li waited two hours at My hotel on the night I arrived to make sure he would see me. He was one of our neighbors and a history lecture at the Chinese communist college. He speaks very little English but really wants to share.

We went on a walk together so that he could show me the astounding changes in China. We walked through an amazing development of 50 story office building's that had been countryside when we were there last.

Our very special friend Wahn Yun Ying,on the right-hand side is our ongoing contact with China. She is part of a multi generational friendship, her father being my father's friend, her being our friend, and her son now friends with our daughters. Xi Xin was a 12-year-old soccer obsessed boy last time we saw him.

Here is a photograph of one of our family dinners at their place that we would have every Sunday dinner. Wang Xun Pu, my father's friend, was alive at the time, living with the family. We would enjoy visiting with them all every week.

Xi Xin is now a well respected surgeon in the cancer hospital. He is expecting his first baby. So lovely to see them all.

On the left-hand side of this next photo is our wonderful friend Cui Li Ping. We met her when she was quite young. She was a 22-year-old university student wanting to use her English to discuss Chinese history, politics, and culture. She helped us with Chinese and we helped her with her English. She introduced us to many fascinating  parts of Chinese history and culture we knew nothing about. 

She is now a full-time marketing professor with a post-doctorate in Shanghai. She travelled six hours specifically to see us.

The background of this photo is new China. All of this did not exist 20 years ago.

This is my sister Cathy, her first trip to China after spending years and years hearing stories us, from my father and researching his work during the revolution. Wang Yun Ying with her apartment across the street. This is definitely old China that we remember.

For years Shelley has treasured memories of her daily Tai Ji Jien sessions with her wonderful friend Zheng Ling. 

Photos from 20 years ago; Shelley had very impressive form then. She really enjoyed her sessions. 

Zheng Ling speaks very little English so Shelley lost contact with her. She asked whether somebody could track her down for our visit. This is the first time they saw each other in 21 years! This reconnection lead to daily morning practice in the park for both of them together.

While standing at the newly renovated gate of the old school we taught at we were thrilled to have the retired principle I used to work for come out and greet us. Then, as a surprise, a young man walking by the street shouted out that I had been his teacher. He went and got his wife and two children to make sure that they would meet me. Here is the family picture. He of course took us out for a fabulous meal.

All of the staff who remembered us came to this sumptuous meal. Check out the happy energy here:

The inside of the school has not changed much since our time:

Here is Mr. Chen, the retired principal, along with a woman we used to call Young Wei because she was one of the young teachers. She is now a very powerful and effective principal of two huge schools. She organized drivers, a guide, and vehicles for us for the next three days of touring at no charge. As she kept saying, we are old friends. No need to pay anything.

Another one of our young, bright teachers Zheng He Ling who is now department head of the brand-new, modern, tourism school that we saw the start up of. We are standing in the alleyway that leads to our old apartment; just as narrow, battered up, dusty, and full of memories as we experienced it.

And of course students are just as excited as they were back then to run into a foreigner at their school!

Check out the brand-new tourism school that was built in the last 20 years. We also taught at the old tourism school with these teachers who all remembered us. As it turns out it is now too small and they are building another brand-new campus to accommodate all of the students.

Once again, we dove into the crowd of students who were thirsty to have the opportunity to practice their English with real live foreigners. These are mainly students who have come from the country-side to build a new life through education and tourism; lovely students!

Amazing the intergenerational connections. This is Nini, one of the girls' playmates in the school-yard. She was four years old when we last saw her. She is now a graduate of the London economics University and will be working in Hong Kong. We connected her with our daughters via Facebook.

The second year that we were in China, we moved to a slightly battered hotel where I was hired to open the first international hotel in the city. It was a Holiday Inn. Shelley taught at the University that year. It was full of problems getting it going because an international hotel was a really challenging thing to do in that area of China at the time. We revisited the hotel. Amazing!

When I went to the front desk in the lobby, I asked to speak to a manager. I spoke to this gentlemen, Peter Li (his English name). He suddenly said: I remember you! I had hired him as a 19-year-old young man from the countryside. He has worked at this hotel ever since. He is now the food and beverages manager, is well-established, and has a family. 

In other blogs we will talk about some of the work done on our family history, on some of the historical pieces of China, and on some of the visits.

 But what really stands out to me as I return to Tokyo is the power and meaning of friendship. Across distance, across time, and across cultures, it is wonderful to be reminded of how important friends are. It is also very humbling to be reminded that we sow what we plant, that every day it is those daily interactions that bring meaning to all of our lives.

To be continued.

Good-bye winter!

We enjoyed one last ski trip to the wonderful mountains north of Nagano to enjoy our last ski trip of the season. Even though it was a below average year for snow, Shelley and I decided to check out what Hakuba would be like as a weekend trip from Tokyo. Thanks to the wonderful Shinkansen (bullet train) and excellent bus connections we were able to zip up to Hakuba on Friday night and come back on Sunday evening.

We stayed at our previous lovely pension tucked in the woods and headed up onto the slopes the next morning at a leisurely time hoping that sun would melt some of the ice. Of course the first challenge is to figure out your route UP (!!) through the veritable forest of gondolas, chairs, quads, entrance gates etc. to make sure you head up to the highest spot. 

To keep us entertained in the line-ups, snow sculptures of various anime characters.

We got to a wind-swept, cold and icy top after a series of 6 different lifts up. 

And of course, before getting too cold or too tired... time for a little "pick-me-up" at the top lodge over-looking the valley. Check this view out. Do you see how high this was?

This area really did have some dramatic Japanese Alpes vistas.

And, ah yes, little tree platforms to better enjoy the view and have a quick lie-down.

From the top of the lift was a very quick scramble up to the top of the mountain with, of course, its own little shrine to welcome us. 

We were thrilled to meet up with Yosh Ono, our friend who was an exchange student with my cousins in Wilmington, Delaware back in the 70s. He has kept in touch with the family since then and we really enjoyed catching up with him, skiing some turns and discussing Japanese history over drinks. 

We totally enjoyed watching the last rays of the afternoon descend upon the valley after another fun weekend of skiing in Japan. We realize that this winter we have been to 9 different ski hills here so have gotten a real taste for some of the variety that Japan has to offer.