Cherry Poppin Daddies

On the left is Yama, my 1991 Suzuki Alto in my apartment complex, in front of the fairly impressive Cherry Blossoms that grow in my parking lot.

On the right is the school, I love this picture, because it captures the noise of the traffic, the odd shape of the building, and the huge ugly tower in the backyard. Talk about a picturesque place to work.

Oh, the entendres. I wanted to take a little while to explain Cherry Blossoms, because I've mentioned them a lot, and I'm sure some of you are wondering about my obsession with a tree. Cherry Blossoms are native only to Japan, it's the only place in the world where they grow naturally, in Washington DC there's a row of them that were traded for dogwoods from the Japanese government sometime after we made it apparent that Tokyo was going to do what we want. (What do you tell a country with two smoldering craters? Nothing, you already told it twice.)

Anyway, in Nihongo (Japanese) there is a verb whose only use, is to watch the Cherry Blossoms bloom, Hanami. Cherry Blossoms are more intrinsically tied to Japanese culture than Samurai's, Sake', Sushi, Small Eyes, Cartoon Porn, Bamboo, and Kamikaze's put together. There are probably about 700 trillion Haiku's written about them, thousands of books with them as the central theme, and they make liquor (quite tasty, 22%) from them. The biggest reason that they have become so precious is due to the amazing fragility of their blooms. A cherry blossom only blooms for two weeks a year, and after they reach full bloom, a single rainstorm knocks almost every single petal off them.

Some of my students have gotten into arguments over whether this year the Cherry Blossoms would reach full bloom on Saturday or Sunday. It's a horticultural science that almost everyone deeply follows. So arriving here two weeks ahead of the Cherry Blossoms and seeing them reach full bloom after a rave in the mountains has a heavier significance to it than, "Oh, that's cool." The Cherry Blossoms start blooming in the south in March at some point and they bloom in the northern, colder island of Hokkaido a few months later. People will literally chase the plants blooming up the latitude of the country.

Sorry to drop the knowledge on yo' fool asses, but I figured I would clarify.

Wheat Out