Hanami

What actually happens

Hana-mi yōen — daytime drinking under the trees, blue sheets over the roots. Yozakura — night viewing, when parks are lit with paper lanterns until 10pm.

• 01Hana-mi yōen — daytime drinking under the trees, blue sheets over the roots.
• 02Yozakura — night viewing, when parks are lit with paper lanterns until 10pm.
• 03Kaiseki hanami — seasonal menus built around sakura mochi, cherry vinegar and pickled blossoms.
• 04Sakura etiquette — do not shake the trees, do not climb them, take your rubbish with you.

Sound of the crowd

There is no hanami music. Groups bring a Bluetooth speaker, which is the closest thing the tradition has to a score. Karaoke happens; enka happens; nobody minds.

How it survived

The practice is credited to Emperor Saga in the ninth century, who held the first recorded flower-viewing party in Kyoto. By the Edo period it had spread to every class, and the somei-yoshino cultivar that made it a mass event was only cloned and propagated in the late nineteenth century.