Magic bar Twister hanami: weird food, weird people, weird coincidences, no hana

If you climbed up the hill towards the temple, there were a few flowers left.

The last day of the Golden Week holidays, our magic bar had a "hanami". This word means "flower watching", but this year there were no flowers left at the end of Golden Week. In Hokkaido, hanami also means barbecue, and there were lots and lots of people having barbecues in the park this day. The guy from our team who was assigned to go and get a good spot was in the park at 6 a.m. and by then it was already difficult to get a good spot, he said. People where there as early as 4 a.m.! And the actual barbecue does not usually start until noon...

Japanese food, very healthy.

I have not seen people put noodles on the nets before (they usually use small aluminum plates).

Sausage fest

There was quite a bit of food to eat. Sausages, fish, vegetables, and endless amounts of lamb. And of course various types of guts. There was also a huge amount of alcohol. All kinds of alcohol. Some people then went up to the temple near the park and bought more alcohol, because apparently they make some at the temple.

There was another guy also wearing sunglasses, and also looking like a mafia member, so we took a photo together.

My friends sweatshirt turned very dirty very quickly.

There were quite a few interesting people coming to our barbecue. There were also people in the park for barbecue with other groups that came up to me and asked if I was from the magic bar. I said that we were all from the magic bar and pointed to the other five magicians there, but most people seemed to only remember me, for some reason.

Selfie and background photo bomb

Party hard, sleep after lunch

One guy I know from our magic bar was there partying with another group, but since he knows us too he came to our place every time he had to go to the toilet (we were in the same general direction). He then dragged me over to his other group and introduced me to them as his "zombie teacher", since I taught him how to paint his face to look like a zombie and where to get the paints etc. He looked pretty good when he did it himself.

Someone I know, not looking like a zombie.

In that group, which I was told was a random collection of people that were friends of friends etc. all starting with one guy who works as an announcer on TV, there was also a young girl I know. We visit the same weddings. And I had once run into the TV announcer too, and he vaguely remembered talking to me. Small world. They did not really know my zombie student who dragged me over to their group, though, so they wondered why I was there.

Surrounded by lots of people I don't know.

Someone I do know!

Booze made at the temple.

A final flower shot

One man hanami in Maruyama Koen

I took my bicycle to Maruyama Koen, a park where people do hanami (cherry blossom viewing) like crazy in Sapporo. The park was full of people having barbecues. This is, I am told, a local Hokkaido custom. In the rest of the country people just sit under the flowers and drink alcohol (and eat food they brought with them already cooked). In Sapporo you always have a barbecue under the cherry trees. In fact, in Hokkaido people also take "Do you want to go to the beach?" to mean "Do you want to have a barbecue, at the beach?". Which, again, I am told is weird to people from the rest of Japan too.

Most of the cherry blossoms were long gone when I got to the park, but the ume (plum trees) were looking nice. Some sakura (cherry blossoms) were still left too. Mainly in places with little sunlight.

I met one of my university friends in the park. He was there with his girlfriend. He asked me if I was there alone, and when I said "Yes" he said "Oh..." with a pitying look... I need to get some friends that can move around during the days (my friends work, so you can pretty much only meet them if you to their place of work).

A woman came up to me and said: "You are the guy with the "tettereeee!" magic trick, right?" Apparently she has been in our magic bar. And people tend to remember a trick where I keep saying "tettereee" (which is really annoying to Japanese people).

There were some festival style tents selling food on the temple grounds right next to the park, so I bought some "croissant tai-waffles". They were good.

There was a guy speeding around on something that looked like a cross between a Segway and a skateboard.

Honshu style Hanami

On my last day in Saitama, everyone else was doing hanami. I had to catch a train at two in the afternoon to be in time for my plane back to Sapporo, so I could not participate very much. I did get to see a little of how they do hanami in mainland Japan.

The trees where not in bloom yet. The TV prognosis said that it would be three more days before full bloom in this area.

As previously mentioned, in Sapporo hanami means barbecue. In Honshu it means buying cold food or bringing food from home and having a picnic. This is nice too, of course. We stopped by a supermarket and bought lots of food and alcohol, and then took a train to a park with lots of cherry trees.  I ate some of the food, which was good, and then got on a train to the airport before most of the participants had even arrived. I did see some of them in the train station, though.

The sign says: "Warning: watch out for perverts"

You can see the park from the train station, and you can even see my sister-in-law in the park in this photo.

Sakura in Ueno Koen

In Ueno, some of the cherry trees were already in full bloom, and there were lots of people there watching the flowers. Cherry blossom viewing, hanami (from "hana" - flower, and "mi" - seeing), is a huge thing in Japan. People go out in large groups and sit under the trees and drink lots of alcohol. There are special "sakura reports" (sakura are cherry blossoms in Japanese) on TV showing how far up the country the line of blossoming cherry trees has moved each day, and prognoses telling you when the trees will be in full bloom where you live. In Sapporo, we are about 6 weeks behind the Tokyo area...

There were of course lots of other people in Ueno watching the flowers. We saw some interesting looking people, and lots of normal looking ones. Since it was a weekday and during working hours, it was not that crowded, though.

In Sapporo, hanami means barbecue. Specifically barbecued lamb. Other things are eaten too, but pretty much everyone brings a grill and barbecues things under the cherry trees. This is only allowed during the cherry blossom season, at other times barbecue in the park is strictly forbidden. In other parts of Japan they apparently do not have this barbecue custom. They buy bento (something like ready to eat lunch boxes) or other ready to eat food and bring that with them.

Around Sapporo, going to the sea also means barbecue. Most people go to the sea and never swim or even dip their feet in the water, they just go there for barbecue. This is weird to me, and apparently it is weird to a lot Japanese people from other parts of Japan too.

My sister in law was asked by a foreign tourist if she could take a photo of her with her camera. When I tried to take a photo of this happening, another foreigner came up to me and asked me to take a photo of him with his iPhone.

Me and my brother, apparently being "annoying"

Lots of people had selfie sticks.

Tokyo style hanami apparently means sitting on asphalt, which looks uncomfortable. In Sapporo, people sit on grass.

The Japanese "look like a doll" fashion

Hanami results in lots and lots of garbage, so the hanami season is one of the few times when it is easy to find a trash can in Japan. Normally you are expected to take your garbage back home and throw it away there, but this does not work with the huge amounts produced during hanami by the large number of extremely drunk people.

They had some festival food on sale too, so I bought something which was "gooey rice on a stick, wrapped in meat".

Hanami (cherry blossom viewing and barbecue) in Maruyama Koen

In Japan, "hanami" (花見, "flower watching") cherry blossom viewing is a big thing. In Sapporo the cherry trees usually come into full bloom in the second week of May, but this year they were a week earlier than normal.

During the very short time the cherry trees are in bloom, you go to sit under the trees and barbecue things. You also drink copious amounts of alcohol.

This year I went to the Bottom Cafe hanami-party in Maruyama Koen (the park which draws the most people during the hanami season) and had five hours of unlimited alcohol and unlimited food. Which was too much food, of course. The weather was not great, it kept raining on and off. The people attended where nice, and the food was good, though. The cherry blossoming was pretty much over, and there were not so many petals left on the trees.

Near the shrine there are booths selling candy and food

I also took a walk up towards the Hokkaido Jingu shrine, also so located in/next to the park. There is a cherry and plum tree park there that is very beautiful.

The path leading up to the shrine is also lined with cherry trees

The entrance to the shrine