The Pitfalls of Japanese Sakura
I don't know what you're talking about, but you have to go to sakura!
Recently, more and more foreigners come to Japan for cherry blossoms. In itself, this trend is very indicative. There is a process of borrowing traditions, because what is typical for the Japanese is atypical for representatives of other civilizations.
What's going on?
In different countries there are no less interesting cultures, flowers, trees, which also bloom periodically. But for some reason, no one goes to these countries to flower these representatives of flora. There are no tours for the flowering of mangoes in the Philippines or the flowering of jagel in Yakutia. In Russia, too, there are no less interesting analogues of cherry - chestnuts in Kiev, apricots in Krasnodar. Why didn't anyone think of organizing tours for chestnut and apricot flowering? I think they tried something in Holland with tulips. But, nevertheless, tourism to the Netherlands has not acquired a pronounced seasonality, as it happened with Japan.
Why is it so popular?
There are several reasons:
1. The tradition of collectively admiring the flowers of trees and plants exists only in Japan. This tradition influenced the planned cultivation of cherry blossoms – the breeding of new varieties and the planting of large areas with trees.
3. The tradition of turning admiring the cherry into a holiday appeared in the 8th century at the top of the Japanese aristocracy, but over time it began to cover other segments of the population. And now, after several centuries, thanks to the painstaking work of breeders and gardeners, the so-called “cult places” of admiring cherry were formed in Japan.
5. Traditions of admiring cherry from ancient times have come into modernity, acquiring new functions in accordance with the changed realities of life.
6. Tour companies began to organize tours of the cult places of cherry blossoming, turning a highly spiritual aesthetic need into a profitable business with multi-billion dollar turnovers.
7. When foreigners began to come to Japan, they could not help but pay attention to such an unusual way to celebrate the onset of spring. According to the law of hospitality, the Japanese offered foreign guests what they considered the most refined and the best they had. Foreigners, according to the etiquette of the guests, politely accepted this gift from the Japanese.
8. The cherry blossoming period in Japan is the most favorable in terms of weather conditions.
What's the catch?
The scale of the event, media coverage and national coverage of sakuru can be compared, perhaps, with the protracted New Year holidays in Russia. The only difference is that everything goes more civilized, ends faster, and the consequences are not so severe and sad.
A wave of cherry blossoms originates in the southern islands and a powerful tsunami covers central Japan up to the northern tip of Hokkaido.
Simultaneously with the period of cherry blossoming in Central Japan, important events take place in the life of the country - spring holidays for schoolchildren and students, the beginning of the academic and financial year. Admission of young professionals is also timed to this period. And this is an additional reason to drink, as can be conveniently at the traditional gatherings under cherry with a pitcher of sake. All this leads to the fact that the cult places of admiring cherry trees turn into mass drunks. The aroma of cherry, already quite weak, completely disappears in the clubs of alcoholic overcooking. Noise, laughter, hoarseness – also do not allow you to focus on the ephemerality of life and the transience of the moment.
In Japan, there is no flexible regulation of prices during the high season, which, of course, includes the cherry blossoming season, prices rise not 2-3 times, but only 20-30%. In the presence of a large layer of middle-class people with approximately the same purchasing power, this leads to the fact that the tourist infrastructure begins to stall (much more powerful than in any other country in the world...). On weekends, traffic jams form on the roads, with seats in hotels on popular destinations - deaf, and in parks and places of mass cherry blossoms - an apple has nowhere to fall. Added huge queues in restaurants, and waving in front of your nose with both hands cross on the part of the staff when trying to enter the next favorite institution – becomes commonplace.
What do I do?
I will not advise you to come at another time and say that Japan is, first of all, familiarization and excursion tours, which do not depend on the season, because you need to see sakura at least once. At least in order to understand whether or not it should have been done.
The best solution is to plan and book in advance. If you have already bought a tour and, reading this article, you understand that you have to go through the epicenter of a cherry storm, then take the following survival recommendations:
- No Disneylands with kids on weekends.
- No day trips out of town on Saturday and/or Sunday.
- Avoid the sights that everyone hears.
- Do not visit hot springs during this period (especially Yunessan).
- Forget the savings. " Cheap and cherry blossom tour are incompatible expressions. I suspect that now, in a crisis, it sounds not very attractive, but still...
- Be patient and develop a philosophical view of things.
And – if finances allow – contact the professionals who will help you plan your trip correctly. Of course, more expensive than on their own, but with the guarantee that the rest will not be spoiled, and the cost of a trip to Japan (and so far not the cheapest country in the world) will not be wasted.
Sergey Gris, Alexey Filatov, project vTokyo.ru.
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