I belong to a big lions club, Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club, which consists of a hundred-plus members. Naturally it's the biggest one of 150 clubs in Shikoku, which is categorized as 336-A district by the International Lions Club. My club is one of the most active clubs in Japan. I sometimes feel busy in fulfilling duties, but it might be due to its scale for me to keep my membership, because there are various people with their own specialties and it's great fun to chat with them. I'm going to write about the cherry blossom viewing party which was held on Apr. 10th.
What do average Japanese people think of cherry blossoms? It would be far different from that of foreigners, I think, and I wrote about it before. The president of my club proposed a plan of a cherry blossom viewing party at his inauguration address last year, but the lifespan of the blossoms is very short and the time of the year and the duration of the full bloom was really unpredictable. However, we came up with the solution.
A hotel manager arranged a big room in case of rain. A CEO whose company specializes in indoor and outdoor advertisements, signboards, displays in a variety of events, and so on, prepared the pictures of cherry blossoms and several real trees. Our daytime regular bi-weekly meeting was shifted to the evening. I'll show you the pictures of the meeting, self-introduction of new members and kimono-wearing members.
I will admit that after living in Japan for 4 years, I appreciate cherry blossoms more than before. However, they have always been special to me because my grandmother planted a cherry blossom tree in her front yard, right in front of her living room window. She planted that tree the year that I was born and always called it, "Sarah's tree". She would call me every year when the tree was in bloom so I could come see it. Now she has passed, and every cherry blossom tree reminds me of her :)
Posted by: Sarah | May 15, 2012 at 11:58 PM