Last Sunday I went to the Bampaku Park with my family for hanami. It was packed with people. It took us a full hour to find a parking lot. By the time we got to the hanami area, there was no space left and we were exhausted too, so we sat next to a few flowerless and leafless trees while staring at cherry trees in the distance. Lunch was delicious. We had fried chicken wings, boiled eggs, rice ball, and lots of other things. After lunch I rolled down on a grassy hill and my son followed me. He seemed to enjoyWe also walked by fields of tulips, beautifully lined in rows of red, yellow, white and purple. Scores of people were crouching to take close-up photos. I used to like taking photos whenever I went somewhere beautiful but now I feel I should enjoy the occasion without the lens of a camera. Seeing the tulips brought the memory of my childhood when I used to go to the hills near our house to search for tulips in the field of dandelions. I used to get so excited whenever I saw a tulip, its thick leaves and fat stalk that stood above all the others flowers visible from a distance. But seeing so many of them at Bampaku wasn’t so exciting for me. Perhaps Marcel Proust, the French novelist, was right when he said that the only true paradise is a paradise lost.
Please tell us about your hanami experience.
