Today I went to an old castle in my hometown to see the cherry blossom around the castle park.

In Japan people get happy when the blossom come up.  I don’t know the reason why it makes us so happy and joyful. 

When I was in Christchurch in New Zealand, there were also a lot of cherry trees around Hagley park and they blossom in the early spring like in Japan. Maybe people in the city are happy to see it, but not like Japanese.

Many drink Sake and have parties around cherry trees in Japan, and they get high !  It’s unusual scene because usually people are quiet, but when the trees have flowers, they get high with Sake or Beer. Flowers are blown by wind in a week or so, and the trees get leaves after the flowers.  And then, people get back to the normal mind. 

If a lot of Japanese people lived in Christchurch in NZ, there would have been cherry blossom parties. And the people of CHCH might get surprised to see them get high.

Anyway, today’s cherry trees are really beautiful. They lose the flowers in a few days. It’s sad but it’s beautiful because of the short time of the highlight.