We returned to Tokyo after 9 weeks in Singapore to find that the sakura (cherry blossom) is already in full bloom. -- about 10 days earlier than usual.
The snow-covered city we left behind has thawed and wild flowers are appearing among the weeds. I had left all my winter clothes still in the wardrobe, thinking that I would still need them at the end of March, but now I find myself hollowing out my cupboard and drawers for early spring wear.
For a week every year, Japan is clothed in gentle, unassuming, yet breathtaking splendor. In the great metropolis, Tokyo, this typically happens in the first week of April, when school and company entrance ceremonies celebrate new beginnings amidst the sakura shower. It is also said that one of the first assignments for fresh graduates joining as new employees is to prepare for the department's o-hanami (sakura viewing party).
This year, however, a spot of warm weather has ushered in the blossoms earlier than usual -- before the proud children go to school for the first time, before the nervous young men and women start their first day at work, before the hawkers are ready with their stalls, and before the arrival of the tourists and their cameras.
Yes, despite months of careful monitoring, watching and waiting, the cherry blossoms have played their trick on us. We are not ready - this year.
But business or not, everyone stops for the sakura. We walk just a little slower, taking a minute to snap a picture here and there with our smart phones and cameras. We greet strangers and friends with a sense of happiness, "Aren't the flowers lovely!" And we make time to sit under the cherry trees with lunch boxes or drinks. For we have waited a long and cold winter -- indeed, the whole year -- for this one week of paradise, and we know that soon enough, the sakura will shed its glory. Still in the prime of beauty, the petals will flutter down and become a carpet of pink underfoot.
