Hanami - Sakura festival 14.5.2015

Annual Japanese Cherry blossom festival, Hanami, was arranged in Kirsikkapuisto in Roihuvuori. This is the 8th time (since 2008) when this event was hold in Helsinki, but it's my first time going there. From animes and movies I only have the imagination how cherry leaves look like. I had always hoped I would see these trees one day. I had even planned about going to Japan to see the cherry trees. The trees were short single trunks covered with pink,beautiful flowers. Their heights place between 7,9 - 11,9 m and the leaves are 5-13 cm long.

This cherry, Prunus serrulata, is called "sakura" in Japanese. Synonymous "Hanami" is traditional picnicking under a blooming Cherry trees. This practice has continued over 1 000 years. "Hana" means "flowers". Japanese have lunch and drank sake (risewine) under these trees in cheerful feasts.

In Japan, sakura symbolizes clouds because of their nature of blooming (life). The blossoms has also often been associated with mortality, the extreme beauty and quick death. During World War II, the cerry blossoms was used to motivate the Japanese people, imagining warriors are "ready like myriad cherry blossoms to scatter". They also believed that the souls of the dead soldiers were reincarnated in the blossoms.

Japanese people celebrate hanami at the same time of the beginning of school and work after vacation. That is why welcoming parties are often held at the same time of the season. However, the celebrations differ due to spring's weather and trees' locations.Japanese go to parks to celebrate with friends, family and company coworkers for many hours.

The flowers bloom for short time (usually a few days or a little more). At the Hanami blossom festival in Roihuvuori bloom about 240 sakura trees. The park is the biggest one with sakura trees. It's free of charge and you can see many kinds of shows, such as songs, dance and martial arts (I was too focused on sakura trees and food :P ).

Actually I don't know how to explain the route to the place because I followed the crowd flow, "follow where everybody are going" ;D One note you can make, when you have left off the subway (Herttoniemi) station, cross the bridge and go towards the water tower you see from far away :P

As always, the phone lines were busy... But I managed somehow to find my friends there haha! Like other people we set our picnic under sakura trees and ate Japanese food - sushi~ Suddenly it started to rain and sleet for a moment. Luckily we brought own umbrellas and didn't let the weather spoil our moments.

No-Face (character in Spirited Away)

You can see also many cosplays (people disguised themselves as Japanese related characters). Some of them participated the dressing competition of Hanami. I met Spirited Away's No-Face?! It brings back memories when I watched my (probably) first anime movie. On that time I was studying in elementary school. The movie was in Cantonese because I got as a present from my relative who are living in Hong Kong. I still like the movie haha!

From elementary school to junior high school I often bought VCD-disks that contain animes in Cantonese. But nowadays people are able to watch almost any movies from streaming media. I admit I am still watching anime haha :D

A lot of people (Finnish, Asians especially Japanese, exchange students, Swedish etc.) went there to enjoy watching sakura flowers. Many of them wore kimono clothes, which made me feel about Japanese world. I want to visit Japan one day and it would be my second time. My first time I went to Japan as a 9-year-old boy. I only remember Disneyland, old man's ramen, temple and my hotel room filled with Hello Kitty products (dolls, sheets, towels, cups etc.)  :P

GOT MY OBAN YAKI! :D

I queued for 2 hours to eat Oban Yaki (Japanese pancake)! Unluckily I didn't have a chance to taste the pancake filled with red bean. So I tried two other tastes (blueberry and vanilla). The pancake was quite delicious and soft, not so sweet as I expected. It costed only 1,5€ so it was worth tasting. Because of this 2 hours queue I missed almost all other events haha xD

In Hanami I met some Japanese inu (= dog) called Akita with different colours (black, white, toffee brown). They are beautiful creatures, but I still prefer neko ( = cat). Maybe I would be a bit lazy to walk own dog everyday :P However, I like dogs, they people's cheerful and close friends~

You are able to enjoy tee time in a tent where organizer boils teas for you in traditional way. In addition, there are other activities (I didn't see them) such as making origami, playing koto and taiko drum, budo shows.

More information about the event from these websites:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1580573262194504/
http://www.roihuvuori.fi/hanami/

The Authors of Hanami:
Akita ry.
FinnPARAnoids
Japania ry.
Japanilainen kouluyhdistys
Japanilaisen kulttuurin ystävät ry,
Helsingin Kendoseura Ki-Ken-Tai-Ichi ry.
Sakura budo club
Suomalais-japanilainen yhdistys ry.
Suomen Chado Urasenke Tankokai yhdistys ry.
Roihuvuori-Seura ry.
Roihuvuoren seurakunta
Yatagarasu ry.