Sakura, sakura, blooming
Sakura, cherry blossom in Japanese, is now in full bloom in Kyoto. As much as visitors get excited, I get excited for this season.
I received a ticket for a light up in Kiyomizu temple. The ticket was valid for two weeks until the end of March, and if it wasn’t for the gift, I would have never thought about going. Everyday Kyoto station is full of visitors from around the world so I was worried that the temple and the area would be crowded. But once I was there and saw the illusions lighting of Kiyomizu temple and the Sakura, I could tell that I was shocked by the beautiful scenery.
Sakura is very difficult to predict for the perfect timing since it is short lived. Even on the news it predicted the perfect timing was at the end of March, but seems the full bloom has changed to a week later. Especially the type of Sakura, Someiyoshino is very very short, only blooms for a few days and fades away in a total of 14 days. That’s why poets or stories would use Sakura to express their broken heart or the precious moment of people’s lives. How the Sakura represents the humbleness of people’s hearts might have enchanted Japanese people, making Sakura as Japan’s national flower.
Memories that brings to mind
I remember the time when I went to Washington DC for the Sakura festival and my nephew was dancing around the tulip garden, eating breakfast under the trees, and taking a photo with the Sakura as yesterday. There was a plate saying the first Japanese cherry trees that were presented to the city of Washington as a gesture of friendship from Tokyo planted on March 27th, 1912. I think everyone knows the story of George Washington and the cherry blossom. One day, he received a hatchet as a gift and wanted to see how good it was so he cut the cherry blossom tree growing in the yard. This tree was his father’s favorite so he got very angry asking George if he knew who cut it. Very bravely, he replied, “I cannot lie… I am the one”. His father’s anger went away saying, “Your honestly are worth more than a thousand trees.”
It is a myth but it is amazing that I still remember this story and the time I went to Washington DC when I saw the Sakura the other day. Not just the memory of the story or the scenery, it brings to my mind how I felt, the warmth in my heart.
Long lived the brain!
When you experience something, our brain inputs a lot of information. In that is the sense of sight, hearing, feeling, and touch, how the body works, etc. In our brain, there is a network of connecting memory to memory. That is why when I see the Sakura, my brain gets stimulated and remembers the story and the fun times. I read a book before that mentioned that you will memorize things in your textbook if you read it as a story. For instance even for history books, imagine that you are one of the characters in that era and think how the people felt and how people lived.
In the book titled “Brain that cannot remember”1, it mentions that the brain is not like muscles. It does not enlarge itself by training and strengthening. Good example is multi-tasking. I have a colleague that says he is good at “watching TV, while eating, and reading a book”. Thinking about that makes my brain dizzy but when you multitask, the brain is occupied by task A, task B, task C, etc. Brain’s capacity would be taken for each one of them and it affects the concentration you really want.
The best solution to take care of your brain is to get a good quality of sleep. When you are awake, a lot of information comes into your brain not just by thinking but using your senses. But when you are asleep, information from the outer world doesn’t come in and the brain will organize your memory and build a long time memory. When I was in middle school struggling with the exams, I tried studying before I went to sleep, especially things that I had to memorize but no luck. I guess this was only for the short memory so it probably wasn’t a good idea. Maybe the most important thing is to be interested in the subject. People can do really well and understand if they are interested and wanted to learn more about the topic.
Forget what you want to forget or learn
The brain has a function to select what we want to remember and what we don’t want to. Things can differ between people and cannot speak to people who have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) but mostly, the brain deteriorates and we think we forget.
I was at a very highly honored tea ceremony. My teacher asked for somebody to clean up the furo, which is something you put the charcoal and ashes to heat up the kama. I thought I could lift it up so with both hands and arms, I tried to lift it up.
Boom!
I couldn’t hold it and there it went right on the wooden board painted with Japanese lacquer. These utensils, especially in this highly honored ceremony, should be more than I could pay for. I hid my eyes not to see if there were dents but I was sure something was there. Oh my… I shouldn’t have thought I could do it. It was against the rule. My teacher smiled and said it was okay but how I felt was terrible.
Hoping my brain would deteriorate and forget about this just like the Sakura would float away in the wind. Hopefully forget but surely learned not to be overly confident with things that are valuable.
14 days from the day it starts blooming until it fades away. I’ve added a story to my Sakura season and learned a lesson. Two good things at once. Starting of Spring too!
– Photo from the Kiyomizu temple light up –
- Book title translated by Sousetsu. Japanese title”Omoidasenai nou” by Sawada Makoto ↩︎
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