The season is basically over, but here are some pictures I took at a hanami (花見) I went to with my church!
The location is at Tsurumai Park - apparently known as one of the best places to view Cherry blossoms in Nagoya. There are a bunch of cherry blossom trees here, and walking around the park was beautiful!
One of the reasons I didn't really take a lot of pictures of the sakura (桜) is no picture could every compare to seeing the real deal. Pictures literally cannot describe how beautiful and amazing they are. They're like tiny delicate flowers, but there's so many of them it's wonderful.
About what people do during hanami, normally people drink and spend time with friends (basically an outdoor party). One of my roommates noticed that most people don't do hanami because they want to see the sakura though; it's mostly to have fun with others. A cultural yearly party that everyone can join. A party where you can get drunk for almost the whole day.
Hanami usually happen all day. Some people start late at night to enjoy the illumination (as well as get even more drunk). According to Japan News (the newspaper my dorm gets for free), every year the number of people who enter the hospital always increases during hanami. They're a lot of drunkards who do stupid things and end of getting hurt basically.
However, the best part of this season is seeing the sakura fall. It's absolutely something to see here. While I was playing with some local kids, we once stood out to watch them fall onto the sidewalk. One kid commented that it looked like "Sakura snow" (桜雪). That pretty much describes their beauty. It's nice to walk under a road lined with sakura trees too, especially if some petals are falling all around you.
Which brings me to a saying during this time too. Hana yori dango (花より団子). It translates as "Dango (a type of sweet) over flowers", which basically means that one would rather receive food more than flowers (so the practical use of food outweighs a beautiful but useless aesthetic). I've heard of different versions of this as well, such as hana yori sake (花より酒) "Sake over flowers". ^__^"
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