Late March and early April is the time for Hanami, or Flower Viewing. During these months cherry trees go into full bloom all over Japan. The practice of hanami is many centuries old and was originally observed only by court elites and Samurai. They would hold flower viewing parties beneath the blossoming boughs while drinking sake and eating special foods. Poems would be written praising the delicate flowers, which were seen as a metaphor for life itself, vibrant and beautiful yet
fleeting and ephemeral.

Today people continue with the tradition of hanami, gathering in great numbers wherever the flowering trees are found. Thousands of people fill the parks to hold banquets under the flowering trees, and sometimes these parties go on until late in the evening.