Spring is just around the corner, and that means the cherry blossoms will soon be spreading across Japan like a pink tide. Starting from the southernmost tip of the country, the progression of blossoms will move steadily northward, followed with rapt attention by the media and a population ready for the annual cherry-blossom viewing parties (a chance to have fun and get drunk outside after the cold, winter season).
Like the ever-lengthening creep of the Christmas season (soon to begin right after Labor Day weekend in America), marketers in Japan appear to be starting the sakura season early.
Suntory has introduced a special flavor to its Super Chi-Hi line of alcoholic drinks called Hana, the Japanese word for flower. Flavored with cherry blossoms (I’m guessing artificial cherry flavor) and lemon, it’s packaged in the lovely pink cans you see above.
Although the cherry blossoms won’t “arrive” here in Nagano for at least another month, the eager folks at the Midori department store just couldn’t wait that long. Earlier this week, they planted two trees in front of the store which were meticulously grafted with plastic cherry blossoms. They looked a little out of place in the falling snow the other day.
One thought on “Hana Anticipation”
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Hmmm…it’s kind of a sad thing to hear that, in a way. I have a large interest in Japan and all things Japanese, and I hold their philosophy of celebrating the changing seasons instead of spending all their time trying to rush along to the next big thing in great respect.
Who over hear, in the west, can really enjoy where they are, when the our culture is pushing us on to the future without the chance to stop and smell the flowers? It’s constant, like a mighty river current, and I’m afraid sooner or later we’re going to go straight off a waterfall.
I thought that maybe, against all hope, Japan would remain a place where that balance was mantained, one of the few remaining places on the angry anthill of a planet where the power of the present was still known.
Alas, I guess it’s just a piece of human nature, and there’s no point in trying to change it, though personally, I’ll try anyway.
To quote the author Terry Prachett, “The intelligence of a mob is equal to the squar root of the people in it.”
And that’s just what the world is becoming, isn’t it? One big mob, fighting amoung its self.