Of Cherry Blossoms, Ohanami1 and Japanese Culture

By Ben Lim

It may surprise you to read this, but I do not actually miss living in Japan that much generally, except for my family and the food.My home territory there is the greater Tokyo area, and while Tokyo is a great metropolis, it’s also unbearably congested and you are living on top of other people all the time.2. territory: 領(lǐng)土，領(lǐng)域；unbearably: 無法容忍地，不能忍受地；congested: 擁擠的。To borrow a term used for another place in the world, generally speaking it’s a nice place to visit, but I’m not sure (given a choice) that I’d want to live there. But there are certain times of the year when I do wish I were there, and right now is one of them. It’s cherry blossom time.

Cherry blossom trees are so ubiquitous3. ubiquitous: 無處不在的，普遍存在的。all throughout Japan,that they are used as an official measure of the changing of seasons.There is something called the sakura zensen4. sakura zensen: 日文的“櫻花前線”。or the cherry blossom front, which tracks the blossoming time of cherry trees throughout the country. (It’s so official that it even appears in elementary school geography books along with other weather maps.)

One thing that Japanese people repeat all the time is that Japan is unique because it has four distinct seasons. The implication5. implication: 含義，言外之意。is that no other place on earth does! This isn’t quite true of course, but I do think that the Japanese culture has a deep appreciation for the changes of the seasons. One of these appreciative rituals is ohanami or hanami. Groups of people congregate on mats under the most picturesque clumps of cherry blossom trees with bento lunches and have a good party.6.人們成群聚集在花朵開得最繁茂美麗的櫻花樹下，坐在毯子上，享受著午餐便當(dāng)，一起度過美好的派對時(shí)光。congregate: 聚集；picturesque: 美麗的， 風(fēng)景如畫的；clump: 叢；bento:盒飯或飯盒。A lot of sake7. sake: 日本米酒，清酒。is usually involved. Since certain places in Tokyo are so popular for ohanami gatherings, it is traditionally the job of the lowliest grunt in the office to go out early in the morning to the place where his bosses want to party later on that evening with a mat and stake out a choice spot under the trees.8. 由于東京的一些賞花地點(diǎn)太過搶手，按照傳統(tǒng)做法，由公司級(jí)別最低的新人承擔(dān)起一大早就去往老板指定的傍晚賞花地點(diǎn)占位的工作，他們帶著一個(gè)毯子，并在選定的樹下用毯子占好位。grunt:這里指“新員工”；stake out:清楚界定。He’d then have to sit there all day.

一到春天，日本即變成一個(gè)櫻花的世界。雖說櫻花年年開，沒有多大驚喜，不過當(dāng)置身于一片粉紅花海之中，載歌載舞且飲且食時(shí)，的確是樂趣無窮，難怪日本人對于“花見”（賞櫻）總是樂此不疲。日本是狹長的島國，南北氣候差異很大，櫻花由溫暖的日本列島南端向北方依次開放，猶如鋒面雨，因此形成一條由南向北推進(jìn)的“ 櫻花前線”。

Families go out for ohanami too, sans the sake usually,though there might be a small bottle or two (or beer) for Dad.Mom would wake up early to make lots and lots of onigiri9. onigiri: 飯團(tuán)。, and the whole family sets off in their car or on the train to appreciate the blossoms.

Eating cherry blossoms and leaves

The trees that produce those beautiful pink flowers are

different from the ones that produce cherries, but in Japan partsof the flowering tree are still eaten. The leaves are salted and wrapped around a mochi that is dyed a pale pink; this sweet is called sakuramochi.10. mochi: 日本麻薯，一種用糯米粉或其他淀粉類制成的有彈性和黏性的食品；sakuramochi: 日文的“櫻餅”。This is one of my favorite wagashi(traditional Japanese sweets) because the subtle salty-sourness of the pickled cherry leaves counteracts the sweetness nicely.11. wagashi: 和果子，是一部分日式點(diǎn)心的統(tǒng)稱，包括團(tuán)子、麻薯、饅頭、銅鑼燒等等；salty-sourness: 咸酸味；pickled:鹽漬的；counteract: 中和。The flowers themselves are eaten too, salted and pickled in clear vinegar. Floating one or two of these preserved blossoms in a bowl of clear soup or tea is really nice,12. float: 使浮動(dòng)，使漂??；preserved: 腌制的，保存的。adding that little salty-sourness again.

Around here it’s still rather cold, but in a couple of weeks the apple trees in our village should be blooming. I wonder what the neighbors will think if we had an ohanami party in the fields…

The cherry blossom front lost in translation

Speaking of the cherry blossom front (sakura zensen)brought back memories of an odd experience I had many years ago.

In the late 80’s to early 90’s there was a revival boom of tanka, a traditional form of Japanese poetry that predates the haiku form by centuries.13. revival: 復(fù)興，再流行；tanka:〈日〉短歌（三十一音節(jié)字的日本詩體）；predate:（在日期上）早于，先于；haiku: 俳句，是日本的一種古典短詩，由“五-七-五”，共十七字音組成。The instigator for this boom was an author and poet called Machi Tawara, whose book of modern tanka called Sarada Kinenbi (Salad Anniversary), became a runaway bestseller.14. instigator: 發(fā)起者；runaway: 迅速的，失控的。

One day, Ms. Tawara was engaged to speak at the Japan Club in New York, together with another author whose name I don’t remember anymore. My mother was a big fan of Sarada kinenbi, and so she dragged me there to hear this bestselling author who wrote such beautiful poems talk about her work.The audience there was almost all Japanese.

I don’t remember most of what Ms. Tawara talked about that day, except for one thing. She was describing how she had given a similar talk on Denmark, to a Danish audience. She said that she had described the sakura zensen,and how Japanese people tracked the arrival of spring with it as the front creeped up15. creep up: （植物）攀援，蔓生。day by day from south to north. She said her Danish audience laughed at this, and said it sounded stupid, and that she realized that it was a very Japanese way of thinking that was not understandable by foreigners.

Now I ask you, if you are a non-Japanese person reading this, do you have a hard time understanding the sakura zensen? Does it sound stupid to you? I’m guessing it doesn’t at all. Every culture around the world appreciates the changing of the seasons, and has different traditions that mark them. I highly doubt that Danish people are any different. And I really doubt that the Danish audience said it was stupid. There must have been a severe breakdown in communication there somewhere—either a bad interpreter, or just that Ms. Tawara totally got it wrong. But the thing is she chose to interpret the situation the way she did.

Anyway, the point of telling this story is that oddly enough, I think it was one of the defining16. defining: 起決定性作用的。moments in my life. It made me realize that one of the things I wanted to do was to give a real, living and informed (as much as possible) “translation” of Japanese culture to people who weren’t Japanese, and vice versa17. vice versa: 反之亦然。. It’s one of the many motivations behind this article. For Japanese person, living solely in Japan (or in any single place)is like being in a protected, comfortable cocoon18. cocoon: 蠶繭。to a great extent, even in this internet age. Living outside of it is like being dunked19. dunk: 浸泡。in freezing cold water. It gives you a shock, but also opens your eyes to both sides of the divide20. divide: 分水嶺。.