SPRING FORWARD

After a long winter of wearing to bed socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, a fleece, and a ski cap, I'm now down to just pants and a long-sleeved shirt.  Glory!  Accompanying this warming weather is an even more welcome development: sakura season!  Sakura (cherry blossom) season is perhaps the most hyped in Japan.  There are websites dedicated to tracking when the trees will bloom in certain areas, and the local news provides an update every day.  Out comes the cherry blossom memorabilia: ceramics, stationery, textiles, and sakura-flavored foods. There's even a national pastime, called hanami, where people break out their tarps and picnic baskets and awake at dawn to secure a lounging spot for themselves under the trees.  The drinking starts early, and the day is spent eating, imbibing, and napping in a manner more reminiscent of the excesses of imperial Rome than present-day Japan.   

Philosopher's Path, Kyoto

The reverence for the sakura approaches a religious fervor.  Before he left for spring break, my supervisor said to me, "While I'm gone, I've asked Kabuki sensei to teach you about cherry blossoms."  This was no botany talk.  What he meant was that it is important to understand the meaning of the cherry blossoms.  The trees are associated with impermanence, as the blooms are so short-lived that they come and go over a matter of days.  To the Japanese, this is a metaphor for life: fleeting.  There's a sentiment here that you can't truly appreciate or enjoy something unless you understand the philosophy or the mindset behind it.  The only problem is that this understanding seems to hinge entirely on whether or not you are a Japanese national.  Don't get me wrong, the Japanese want foreigners to enjoy the cherry blossoms.  They just want to make sure that we give credit where it is due.  When I mentioned that Washington, DC is renowned for the trees that bloom there, someone told me, "Ah, yes. We gave you those trees one hundred years ago.  They are near the Po-to-mac River, yes?"  The Japanese embassy even has a map of sakura locations in the United States.   It seems cherry blossoms are to Japan what pandas are to China.

Old Gion, Kyoto

JESUS LIVES

Lady AL (LAL) is responsible for writing a monthly newsletter for her place of work, which often contains a number of pieces on Western culture and traditions.  For the month of April, LAL decided to cover two topics, April Fools Day and Easter.  After reading through LAL's definition of the word "pranks," and perusing the history behind Easter, one of her supervisors came up to her, the newsletter in hand.  "Ah, AL-san," he said, "I enjoyed this month's newsletter.  But I have one question. This part [he points to a passage]- this is prank?"  It turns out that the paragraph he was indicating had to do with the tale of Jesus's death and resurrection.  As LAL put it, "I mean, I could kind of see where he was coming from.  Some guy convinces all his friends that he's dead and then 3 days later shows up and says, 'Surprise! Got ya!'"  She then felt bad as she explained that this was actually a miracle, not a prank- and that perhaps her supervisor should not refer to it as a joke to any Christians he might meet. 

Jesus (or Christo, in Japanese) is virtually unknown here, like a character actor whose face you know, but you wouldn't recognize their name.  I was recently talking to the 14 year-old daughter of one of my co-teachers, who has just taken up the guitar and was proudly showing off her new equipment.  She pulled up a photo of her many guitar picks, each of which had a different image or color theme, and one of which looked really familiar to me from my days at Catholic school.  "Why do you have one of Jesus?" I asked.  "Who?" she responded.  "Christo." A few beats.  "WHAAAAAT?"  She looked closer at the bearded man with the radiant halo and shook her head.  "I did not know." I asked her why she bought it; she said, "It is cute!"