Sakura: Beginning of New Hope

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My third spring in Japan, and also my third time to see my campus be filled with blooming sakura (桜, cherry blossom, prunus). Before ‘our’ first encounter two years ago, I thought I will soon get used to the flowers and become not too excited of having the chance to see them again in the next spring (one of it because I’m not too fancy with pink). However, it proved that I was wrong. Those fine-looking flowers still could take my breath away, even now. When winter comes close to an end and the south wind starts to blow the scent of spring (in Japan, the beginning of spring is marked with the wind from the Pacific), I always look forward to see the blooming sakura again, to simply stroll below the pinkish stalks even long after the sun has set, and to have party underneath the branches with my friends and let the petal falling on us like a wedding confetti (without bride and groom :-) ). And lucky me, this time nobody (at least here in Japan) would think of me as a lunatic stranger for doing so. Lots of people hold party underneath sakura tree at these time, and it is called hanami (花見; literal meaning would be ‘flower viewing’ - hana(花): flower, mi(見): see/view; dictionarial meaning is a picnic under the cherry blossom). In early spring you can get bunch of hanami invitations (last week I had hanami in almost every single day - and one of it lasted way until close midnight, and even one of my friends got three hanami invitations in the same day).

In general, Japanese consider this season of sakura as a special one. May be this is because sakura has special meaning to them. Blooming sakura are so fragile and ephemeral (the blossom only last for about a week, and it is easily destroyed by rain or wind), and Japanese think that it is resembles life and beauty (so delicate and fleeting). Beside that symbolism, sakura also closely associated with new beginning or new hope, for they marked the beginning of a new cycle of the year. The sakura blooms after the tree seems to ‘sleep’ during the winter, and the new buds bring out new hopes for the new season. (This part reminds me of the A-bomb story in Hiroshima. It was believed that for about 5 years after the bombing nothing would ever grow in the land nearby the hypocenter of A-bomb. However, in the next spring, the grass started to grow on the site, and so did the hope of Hiroshima people to build their city again. It was not sakura back then though, but the moral of the story is quite the same).

It is the second symbolism that comes to my mind whenever I see the flowers now. I came to Japan 2 years ago with a mix of feeling. Happy, for I finally could continue ‘my quest’; Sad, for the problem in my ‘love story’; Worried and relieved, since my parents had just recovered from traffic accident. I came to Japan when all my hope started to surface, and I was ready to restart my life again and made up for the mistakes I had committed in the past. And on that very day, I walked my first steps on my campus and got astonished by the view of sakura trees in front of main building. Since then sakura always bring the meaning of new hopes to me.

Now and then during the year, I like to take my time walking past those trees, recalling the moment, and feeling my spirit rise again. When the spring comes like now, it really brings me back to the time, and reminds me that there is almost always enough hope left in this world to restart life all over again. Sometimes the path is not easy, but it’s always good to give a try, for God never forsakes any good effort that we make.

Anyway, I feel that this song always fits my feeling when I stroll below the sakura tree…

...I, I'm a new day rising
I'm a brand new sky that hangs stars upon tonight...

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again...