Spring in Japan

日本の春

Official announcement of Sakura's blooming

Spring is arriving in Japan.
Today the Weather Ministry made an official announcement that the cherry trees are in bloom in Fukuoka and Nagoya today. Actually I found on tree in full bloom last week in Tokyo. But they haven't announced it for Tokyo.

I found this Sakura in the night

That is why there are some kinds of Sakura trees and when to bloom depends on them. For instance, Kawazu-sakura blooms in the middle of February but the most bloom from the middle of March to the middle of April.


The Ministry has a specific cherry trees to observe in each big cities like Tokyo and they make an announcement if the trees are identified five or six flowers to bloom. It doesn't matter to the announcement even if you see many cherry blossom in bloom. The trees for observation may be late type in Tokyo perhaps. In Tokyo they have them in Yasukuni-temple where is located in Kudanshita. Btw we call cherry blossom "Sakura".

Japanese people love Sakura, Sakura-mochi

Anyway I am wondering why they need to make an official announcement. .. Indeed "Ohanami" that people enjoying eating and drinking with friends and families, colleagues under the fully bloomed cherry blossoms is one of the big events to Japanese people. Possibly all Japanese people love Sakura.

Japanese people have enjoyed Ohanami since back to more than one hundreds year. They say ancient people believed that the god says in Sakura trees. Because Japanese love Sakura too much, we have a lot of Sakura-flavored sweets and snacks. I supposed the oldest one is Sakura-mochi.
Mochi is rice cake which is made of pounded sticky rice. Mochi of Sakura-mochi is pink-colored like Sakura and seasoned sweet wrapped in a pickled Sakura leaf. It has a red bean paste that is called "anko" in its center. It is one of the traditional seasonal sweet.

桜開花宣言

春です。 今日、気象庁が福岡と名古屋で開花宣言しました。 先週、東京で満開の桜を見つけましたけど。でも、東京の宣言はまだです。というのも、桜には何種類かあります。例えば 河津桜は2月の半ばには咲きますが、多くは3月半ばから4月半ばに咲きます。 気象庁の観測用の桜が大きな年にはあり、その木の桜の花が５、６つ咲いたら、宣言するんです。 なので、いくら満開の桜があっても関係ないわけです。東京の観測用の桜は遅い種類なのかも？ちなみに東京では、観測用は九段下にある靖国神社にあります。

桜を愛でる　桜餅

しかし、なんで宣言する必要があるのだろうか。。。たしかに、桜の下で友達や家族、同僚などと食べたり飲んだりする”お花見”は、日本の一大イベントの一つ。桜が嫌いな人はいないんじゃないかな。お花見は100年以上前から人々に楽しまれていた。昔の人は桜の木には神様が宿っていると信じていたそう。 桜が好きすぎる日本人は、桜味のお菓子が沢山あります。その中でも最古なのは桜餅でしょう。餅はもち米を付いて作ったケーキです。桜餅のお持ちは、サクラ色に色付け、 甘く味付され、桜の葉に包まれています。なかには餡子が入っています。季節物の伝統的なお菓子です。