Hanami (Sakura viewing) in Shimokita

3.21.2002
The wind was blowing quite fiercely today but it did not stop us from our first hanami (sakura-viewing) of this year.  At least the weather was warm enough and after packing up my boom box, an ice chest, a couple CDs, a huge plastic sheet and therm-a-rest I was ready to go.

There is a walkway - about 3 to 4 km long - that is lined with sakura trees for the most part and it is a popular spot for hanami around Shimokitazawa. I scooted around for a site and at first I decided a place on a sand gravel part of the walkway because I thought it would be softer to sit on: bad idea.  As soon as I spreaded the plastic sheet, a wicked puff of wind blew out of nowhere and whipped up a sandstorm covering me and all my possessions with a thin layer of sand.  I felt like I had gone to the beach. 

After my friend Kitamura came we decided it wouldn't be nice to have sand as part of our hanami dining, so we moved to a paved section of the walkway; luckily I had brought the therm-a-rest so it wasn't too bad to sit on the pavement.

Kitamura is an avid ethnic music listener who is also learning how to play the djembe (an African drum). To keep Kitamura happy, I had brought a couple Indian tabla albums of the Indian master Zakir Hussain with me. After we sat down and started drinking some beer I started playing one of the CDs; the dreamy ambience created by the music was strangely fitting for the hanami. (I can sort of understand why many people in the 60s would do drugs while listening to this stuff.) Maybe that is why we did get some odd looks from passerbys who probably thought we were on something. (Intoxicated we were...but mostly by Asahi Super Dry.)

Simone came a bit later on her bicycle with a bunch of food and salad dishes and the party was well on its way. A while later Kitamura and I had enough beer so I brought out the main attraction of the day - caipirinha. In my ice chest I had a half bottle of lemon juice (freshly squeezed by yours truly just for the occasion.) Of course there was also a pack of ice cubes and with a bottle of pinga I started fixing caipirinha for Kitamura and myself. Ummm... so nice to sip this stuff under the sakura.

After we have been sufficiently intoxicated by the wonderful Brazilian cocktail Sakao and Inaba finally showed up. They were just, oh say, 4 hours late. It was almost 5pm and was getting cold out, so we decided to head to a karaoke so everyone could have a jam session with all the percussion instruments they had brought to the hanami.  Kitamura and Sakao were jamming furiously to the samba and latin dance songs Inaba and I were singing. What a great way to enjoy karaoke - if you have friends that can do percussion, I highly recommend it!

© Copyright 2002 Ivan Chung. Last update: 2002/07/01; 7:56:39.