Sunday afternoon, the day after my return, the remnants of the 4th Floor Team gathered together and went down to Beppu City Park to see the sakura, or cherry blossoms. We’ve lost 3 previous members: Ting is back in Hong Kong joining the legions of working stiffs and Arami and Yunji are now living somewhere downtown. However, we’ve already recruited two new ladies to the team though, so our numbers weren’t too depleted.

We strolled through the park snapping pictures as we pleased and after a little while politely coerced an elderly woman into taking a group picture of the 4FT 2006.

Jane is a senior undergraduate from Korea who decided to do a term in AP House to meet some new people. C. G. is a freshman from Minnesota who spent the ages of 3 to 11 living in Japan while her parents taught English, and is therefore fluent. They both are nice girls, and are both now part of the crew.

Truth be told, there isn’t a great deal I can tell you about sakura-viewing. I’ll share a few cultural tidbits though:

• Sakura are so important to the Japanese that they know the exact flowering and withering dates for virtually every tree worth looking at in the country, and this time of year weather forecasts devote more time to detailing the best parts of the country to currently see blossoms than actual weather reports.
• The ‘proper’ way to view sakura is to join family, friends, or both at a park and have a picnic that rivals a Thanksgiving feast.
• This is also pretty much the only time it is both socially and legally acceptable to openly consume alcohol in public. The blossom viewers tend to imbibe pretty heavily in all manner of spirits while they picnic under the trees. Nothing ever gets out of hand though, if anything people just get sleepy and stretch out for a nap on their blanket.

I’ve got a half-dozen or so other pictures of the sakura throughout the park. They don’t really require any introduction, nor can I come up with seven separate instances of witty commentary for what is essentially the same subject, so I’m just going to list them below and you can peruse them (or not) at your leisure.

Before I finish, I should add that this was the first time in my life I have seen the sakura in person, and it was pretty damn awesome. Describing sitting on your behind and staring at flowers as “pretty damn awesome” may seem a bit odd, and I similarly lacked appreciation for the Japan’s passion for these diminutive buds before I witnessed them first hand… but having seen them now, I completely understand.