Usui-san took us to his favorite cherry blossom viewing spot on Nishiokoppe grazing land.
A few solitary trees jutting out of the rolling hills made for a lovely first viewing experience.
WikkiAnswers told me this about the significance of cherry blossoms in Japan....
For the Japanese, the beautiful period of its flowering and then the all too soon fading and subsequent scattering of petals on the wind, symbolizes life itself -
but not life in some abstract and distant sense. The fragility of the cherry blossom is the fragility of human existence; its brief period of life, like our own; its implacable movement toward death. If it has five petals, it means luck, because five petals (much like a four leaf clover) is very rare.
Thank you Usui-san. We had a great time!
