April 5th: Hanami
Hanami is the Japanese custom of viewing flowers and appreciating their beauty. Hamami is usually reserved for the Sakura (or Cherry blossoms), which only happens once a year for about ten days. It is one of the oldest and biggest traditions still celebrated today.
This is some of the Sakura trees located on our street and around base that we saw while walking to our Spring festival. For about ten days the view out our windows was filled with pink blooms. The flowers seem to appear out of nowhere overnight and disappear just as fast. (presently we have small cherries on our trees and fat birds, ha ha.)
This was our fist view of the Spring Festival held on base. The Naval base opens it's doors to the Japanese public to celebrate spring and the Sakura. The Americans and Japanese both attend and it was PACKED!
The Sailors are not allowed to go out in town in uniform usually so the Japanese flocked around the Sailors who were uniforms to take pictures. I'm sure they got a lot of numbers, too. Ha ha.
During the festival they had many different types of performances like traditional dancers and jazz bands. We watched a Taiko drum performance. It's amazing what kind of music you can make with just drums.
The line above, that went on and on, was for American style pizza. Young and old will come on base and bring home a few pizzas when they visit base. It seems to be the thing Japanese want to eat the most when they visit base. Cinnabon and American beer is also very popular.
So a couple days before we there when the blossoms started to bloom at the park...
And this is the same park a couple days later.
On base is supposedly where most of the Sakura trees are located in Yokosuka. In part our base is very spread out and green compared to the rest of the city, so the base is very ideal for Sakura viewing locally.
The Japanese out in town will stake out a piece under the Sakura to hold a Hanami. The party usually consists of family and friends with lots of eating traditional (and non-traditional) foods and drinking. On the news they hold forecasts of when the Sakura will be in bloom in each of the cities like the weather. I was even told by my teacher in orientation to excuse the Japanese this time of year because they will be very drunk. Ha ha.
On base it is of course much more low key but possibly more crowded.
Here is our Mcdonald's that was in the area of the festival. It's pretty neat because it's right by the water and a park on base. The Japanese were packed inside to try the "American" stuff on our menu as their menu out in town can be pretty different.
These pictures our opposites of each other. One is on base looking at the Japanese park across the way. Then we walked off base to take a pic of the base. The crowded park on each side didn't show up very well --but they were very crowded!
This is pics of the lines for getting on base. The base was open but they still had to go through security which included bag checks, dogs and etc. The line went all the way back in the morning but was still crowded in the afternoon for only a couple hours left to go of the festival on base.
Just off base by the lines they had food stalls with traditional Japanese "festival" food. I had some Takoyaki and Terry had grilled corn. Yummy.
Outside of base, in the Honch, is a small shrine among the newer buildings. The Honch during the day is a popular shopping area for the locals but in the evening it's a lively night spot for the Sailors.
Next to the shrine is a live house that plays rock and punk music. Terry and I want to attend a live show there one day.
And to finish off the day we walked the streets of Yokosuka. Some of the buildings are pretty old in Yokosuka but still pretty cool.
I look forward to Hanami next year!