Hanami 2006

Cherry Blossoms
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This week brought on hayfever, Hanami and the start of the spring weather I remembered from my trip to Tokyo last year. I now know why the surgical mask's that people wear are so popular. A whole lot of hayfever blues are avoided by wrapping your mug in an air filter, and the small price of looking like an extra from Holby City is totally worth it for allergy sufferers.

But the talk all week was Hanami. Hanami (if you haven't been paying attention) is the time of the year when people appreciate the Cherry Blossoms trees (Sakura) whilst they are blossoming. The blossoms are only as depicted for about a week so you can imagine the anarchy as most of Tokyo's populace descend on its few parks to make the most of it. Of course, its not just about viewing the trees but also about getting drunk in the park with your friends. Nice. If you want to re-live those moments of illicit under-age alcoholic indulgence then Hanami is a good way to do it.

My hanami line up was as follows:

1) Work sponsered event in Aoyama Cemetery on Thursday (perfect for the morbit among us)
2) The Ark Hills Hanami festival on Friday (perfect for the family guy)
3) Kinuta Koen with an organised TKO tech folks/games programers event (perfect for geeks like me!)

However, the promised spring weather was slow in kicking in. Thursday started with grey clouds and high winds. High winds are fine, but high winds in Roppongi hills (the only office apparantly modelled after an aerofoil) are really dangerous. When I got to work people were leaning into the wind and falling over with random updraughts.

Anyway, knowing this I went home after work to change into something warmer. I'm pretty close to the cemetery, but I decided to cab it once I was ready. I got there and started to look for everyone. The first thing I noticed is how quiet it was (I was in a cemetery so I was a little freaked out) but I eventually spotted a few people. None, however, were part of the work event. Damn, I called someone who told me they'd packed up early and went to the work bar. Bastards! I'd been walking about in the cold for 20 minutes and no one called me to let me know they were moving! Well, I just went to the bar and got pissed anyway. This meant I never managed to get any of the promised photographs... although I did take a few of drunk colleagues that I couldn't possibly post on the web. They are available to view for a small fee however... ;)

OK, I still had the Ark hills event to get the night photos... but NO. I forgot my frackin camera. I took a few on my phone and some using Yuka's camera (I'll post a link to her Flickr account if she uploads them) but all I have now are my keitei snaps. They suck. Never mind, we all went to a great Thai restaurant near Ark Hills and then went back to my place for a music video marathon and Project Gotham blow out. So the night turned out to be good fun.

At last, day 3: The Hanami that was. Dave had invited us along to a Tokyopia (games and geeky/tech forum in Japan) Hanami event. This was to be in Kinuta Koen which is pretty far out of the centre of Tokyo but was totally worth it.

After starting the day with a Double Double Freshness Burger (mmmm) at about 2pm, we got on a train to Yoga. The area is a fairly quiet suburban part of outer Tokyo, which is no doubt how they managed to fit such a big park there. Kinuta Koen (Koen means park btw) is the first park I've been to with lots of space for grass and the associated games you'd expect to see people playing in parks. If you go to other parks in Tokyo, they tend to be heavy on trees, short on space and full of winding paths. Kinuta Koen had people playing footy. Awesome!

We eventually made camp with the Tokyopia group which included a few familiar faces. By the time we arrived people were well on the way to either a food coma or alcohol coma. Actually, most people in our group were holding out quite well, but there were plenty of Frat-like chanting and drinking games on the go. There were also a few patches of vomit and a long queue outside the obligatory disgusting chemical toilets.

So we drank our drink till we started feeling drunk, ate our food till we started getting too full to drink, and generally made merry whilst enjoying the company and the blossoms. I was actually put in mind of the Lund spring festival Matt and I attended with Linus the past couple of years, but surprisingly less crowded.

As our evening appointment approached, we packed up and headed to Greg's place on the other side of Tokyo to play cranium, watch Chappelle's show and also watch Walk the Line. This meant in total I drank from about 3pm to 3am. As far as I know, a lot of the people who stuck around at Kinuta Koen had been drinking since about 7am and probably went on till that time the next day.

Did I ever mention that I love Japan? Well... I do. The opportunities to eat and drink all day are boundless and usually involve great company.

Oh, and on Sunday, I went to a party with a bunch of my Doki at Yasu's place to meet his new baby daughter. Another day of drinking... and it was really nice. If the family's don't mind, I'll post a picture from that day too.

SPIFF OUT