O-HANAMI (16-Apr)

This the day I have been waiting for…O-hanami, in English it means activity of watching flowers (sakura blossom). “Hana” is flower while “mi” coming from the word miru/mimasu is “to watch”. O is referring to something that is respectable, or revered upon, so “o-hanami” simply means flower watching.

O-hanami is more than flower watching. It is also a time for family members to get together and spend time with each other and enjoy the start of the Spring season. We get to see picnic mats strewn all over the park and kids running around, while the elder children play Frisbees or badminton in the open. It is really interesting.

For me, o-hanami fell on Easter Sunday and I could not find a church to go to. I am still new here. It was really unfortunate that I had to miss this year’s Easter Sunday. Easter is the culmination of the Christian belief and is the most important day for Christians (just as it is for Christmas). But Easter is also a time where we celebrate new life. Even though I could not make it to church this year for Easter, I thank God for making it possible for me to see this new life in a different angle where flowers start blossoming, trees begin to turn green, and gardens becoming more colourful every day. Little chics just hatched and running everywhere. This is new life…in a different dimension.

I went with the group of Malaysian students to the Stadium Park. It is the same stadium that one of the matches for the World Cup 2002 was held. We had pot luck style gathering and it was one of those few times I could taste Malaysian delicacy like cucuk badak, ayam percik, mi goreng and karipap.

I took lots of pictures in this park where the whole park was pinkish white on the top and green at the bottom. That was cherry blossom in Stadium Park.

Then we went to this hydroponic strawberry farm about 15 minutes drive from the park and harvested strawberries on our own for only 660yen. Again, you must not convert to RM, but the amount of strawberries we had would probably cost 800yen in supermarkets here.