Blog

Farewell is nothing but the nature of life?

A spring poem frequently read in the season of cherry blossoms.

Just like storm right after flower.
Life is full of hellos and good-byes

This means as stated below:
As soon as a flower has bloomed finally, in the next instant, a storm blows it away all too soon.
The repeat of meetings and partings continues. Farewell is nothing but the nature of life.

It is strongly doubtful how many people in Japan live such a chic life that is full of repeated rendezvous and adieu in reality, however it may be, the Japanese tend to feel fragility of falling down right after a bloom when they take a look at cherry blossoms.
Yes, it is. Life is full of hellos and good-byes.

Although this poem was originally an old Chinese poem, once a famous novelist translated it into Japanese, it almost would have captured the hearts of Japanese people, and now it is loved as if it were created in Japan from the first.

As described above, to feel the season from transitioning is a Japanese way of chic.
In this week’s trip, you can enjoy luxury of experiencing snow mountains, cherry blossoms and fresh greenery.

At the background of a winter perspective that should have passed away, you appreciate flowers of spring, while enjoying fresh verdure in advance, forefeeling the spring should be passing too.
Please experience a fragility of its transitioning, viewing various kinds of Japan’s seasons.

But actually, the four sasons might be losing their balances, from the influence of warming temperature recently in Japan too. Soon after the cold winter, into the hot summer in a minute. Sometimes we have a year like a subtropical zone. There’s just no time for the Japanese traditional four seasons. Come by Japan and feel Japanese good and old fragility until it’s passed away!

This week’s Japan trip: CherryBest of Central Japan – snow mountains, cherry blossoms and fresh greenery
(Link is here) 

This week’s trip is Best of Central Japan, which is selected from places between Tokyo and Osaka, including mountainous area in Nagano and snowy area in Hokuriku District near the Japan Sea.

You can view snow mountains, cherry blossoms and fresh greenery within a trip in Spring, especially recommended for April to May.

In Yamanashi, before mountainous area, you can appreciate cherry blossoms and other flowers and feel spring. During mountainous area from Nagano to Toyama, through the Alpine route, you can feel great nature. After going over the mountain, you already can feel fresh greenery during Kyoto temples visit.

With the arrival of April, in Tokyo, we are right in the middle of cherry blossom season.

However, it sometimes rains in April and the Japanese live anxiously wondering whether the rain will cause the cherry blossom to fall right after it blooms.

Japanese people love cherry blossoms, because of the overwhelming beauty of it, but also its fragility, should the flash of beauty flutter away soon after.

Actually, it’s a vision that lots of petals are falling with no sound from a big cherry tree. If you’re somewhere in Japan during the season and watching it, you could enjoy it fully.

And also, cherry blossoms always remind Japanese people of cherry blossom viewing or “hanami”.

But, why do Japanese people drunk outdoors at hanami?

Not only do the Japanese enjoy drinking outside, but Japanese people might prepare outdoors drinking events, finding any excuses all through four seasons. Such as, a beer garden in summer, a BBQ party, a fireworks display and several festivals in Summer and Autumn.

Among those events, hanami is by far the most popular.

The most joyful thing is to celebrate the coming of Spring overcoming the cold winters, together with a bloom of cherry blossoms that Japanese people like the most.

For foreigners, it must seem strange to see crowds of people having outdoor parties in parks all over Japan.

All the people there are drinking as one at the time of hanami, so when you visit Japan during season, please enjoy “SAKURA(cherry blossoms)” and drink together with us!!!

This week’s Japan trip: Cherry blossoms of Tohoku district. The trip you can touch the soul of Japan.

(Link is here) 

Let us introduce a trip, which is the most suitable in a cherry-blossom season.

In Tohoku district, there’re several magnificent cherry trees, including one of the three major cherry trees, Miharu where you can see cherry blossoms standing out against the waterfall.

You can also travel around some ONSENs(hot springs), while seeing cherry blossoms in each area.

You can enjoy the traditional streetscape at Ouchi-juku(大内宿), and the nostalgic landscape at Gin-zan onsen(銀山温泉).

Plus, at Senami onsen(瀬波温泉) near the Japan sea, it would be a luxury to be soaking in an onsen and watching the sun set over the sea at the same time.

A lot of seasonal delicacies.  SAKURA-MOCHI, which is a sticky rice cake wrapped with a cherry leaf in salt, mountain vegetables collected only in Japan, just-cooked steamed rice of Niigata area famous for rice producing. You can’t miss any of these.

Never miss a chance to visit Japan in the cherry-blossom season, and touch the soul of Japan!

It’s our first blog post and we would like to take this chance to introduce ourselves (the resident bloggers)!

Ogawa Motoka

My name is Ogawa and I’m an experienced tour guide based in Tokyo, Japan.

I’m the main tour guide for Toko Service and I absolutely love my job! Nothing makes me happier than to share with people all the beauty and wonderful sights of Japan.

I enjoy meeting new people and think the best reward at the end of each trip is for my customers to tell me that they had a good time and would like to return to Japan for their next holiday.

Sara Yeoh

My name is Sara and I LOVE Japan. I’m not a tour guide but I will be using this blog to share about my many experiences and visits to the beautiful land of the rising sun.