In Japan, there is a culture called “Hanami” (cherry blossom viewing). The “flower” is the cherry blossom. After all, the Japanese word for flowers is “sakura” (cherry blossoms).
Even in haiku (haiku), the world-famous short poem (17 syllables), when the word “hana” is used, it refers to cherry blossoms.
There is an old saying, “Hana wa sakuragi, hito wa bushi (The flower is the sakura tree, the person is the warrior).” The cherry blossom, which blooms gorgeously and then falls away in a flash, is compared to the way of the samurai (bushido), who bloomed beautifully and then fell away gracefully.
Although this was the way of thinking during the feudal era of the samurai world, I have a feeling that there are some remnants of the samurai aesthetic deep in the hearts of the Japanese people.
Hanami is a time to lay out a sheet under a cherry tree in full bloom and share food and drink with friends while admiring the blossoms.
It is a kind of banquet, often accompanied by drinking. It is a party under the trees.
The cherry blossoms are not always in full bloom on Sundays or national holidays, and there are only a limited number of people who can view the blossoms during the daytime on weekdays.
Therefore, cherry blossom viewing spots are not so crowded during weekdays, and there are only a few places where young children and their mothers can be seen relaxing peacefully,
There are not many people drinking alcohol or gathering around barbecue nets and griddles.
At night, however, the quietness of the place changes drastically. The people who have been working during the day gather together like, to use an old saying, a cloud and mist.
In other words, a large number of people gather at once in a limited space.
The number of people who want to view cherry blossoms is far greater than the number of cherry trees, and it is not possible for everyone to sit on a sheet under a cherry tree.
On weekdays, people who work at various companies come here and there in the evening as a unit of their departments to view the cherry blossoms with their colleagues in their departments,
In order to do so, they have to “take a place” and reserve a space where all their department mates can sit.
How do we do that?
One (or at most two) members of the department go to a park famous for cherry blossoms in the morning, lay out a sheet in a space big enough for all the members of the department to sit on, and
stay there until the members of the department who have finished their work in the evening come to the park.
He (or she) would sit there from morning until his (or her) colleagues arrived in the evening after their work was finished.
So he (she) does not have to do his (her) own work at all in the morning. His (her) job for the day is to take the place.
Yes, taking the place is indeed a job. That task is assigned mainly to new employees. Since the majority of companies hire new employees in April, they have not yet done much of their original work,
I was asked to take the place for the cherry blossom viewing party while I was still doing almost nothing else. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is their first job.
Many new employees may say they like looking at cherry blossoms in full bloom, but they do not like parties so much. After all, this is business.
It is a rite of passage to become a company man.
Nietzsche wrote a book titled “Too Human, Too Human,” and I can’t help but murmur with a sigh that the “rite of passage to get a place to watch cherry blossoms” is “too Japanese, too Japanese.
However, the “too Japanese, too Japanese” hanami was no match for the corona, and after three years of quietness around the cherry blossoms, this year people have returned to the “too Japanese, too Japanese” hanami situation.
Not being in the mood to enjoy flowers with drunken people, I walked around during the day, without eating or drinking, through the rows of cherry trees spreading across the large grounds of Osaka
Castle and the beautifully lined line of cherry trees far along the banks of the Okawa River around JR Sakuranomiya Station.
I walked along the streets murmuring, “I like to drink, but I can drink at night.
