Hanami Parties - an excuse for all day saké drinking

As a general life rule (although not strictly enforced) drinking before pub opening at 11am is frowned upon but when we stepped off of a night bus at 5.30am in Osaka and headed to the park this was thrown out of the window.  It turned out that the biggest weekend for the sakura festivities was taking place in the park that day and on every spare inch of grass people had put out blue plastic sheets to mark their territory for the forthcoming celebration.  Some people had even slept out on the sheets in sleeping bags and it felt like we had arrived at a Japanese Glastonbury as groups of old men sat about drinking bottles of saké whilst barbecuing fish and beef to have with some instant noodles.  Feeling left out I found a few cardboard boxes to sit on and after squeezing ourselves in I headed off to the shop for supplies.The short blooming of the cherry blossoms are symbolic to the people of Japan and are thought of as showing that every beginning has an end and that life is beautiful yet very short.  What better way to do this that have an all-day session with friends?  It all felt very Zen! 

As the morning wore on the atmosphere turned into a party and everyone from young families to old couples arrived to take their claimed land.  Despite dark crowds rolling in people continued to pour into the park in search of friends among the smoke from the hundreds of barbecues.  It would seem this is now far easier than it used to be at festivals when we would spend hours walking around a field praying that our phone battery's would last long enough to find mates whose best description of their location would be 'we are next to the big tent' - no shit!  Now people are sent exact GPS coordinates and people were walking around with their phones held out in front of them like a compass. Although it looked a little easier it seemed to take some of the fun away! In Japan the party during sakura season is known as a Hanami party and there were clearly professional Hanami goers as men competed to have the best barbecue set up in a display of dominance normally seen on wildlife programs.  The winner was a man next to us that had even set up a utensils rack next to his three barbecues, table, chairs and expensive gazebo! Unfortunately for us after a bottle of saké and some sushi tiredness began to sink in from the night bus and we headed off mid-afternoon in search of our Airbnb apartment leaving the chaos behind.