Time for Sakura in Japan!

Mar 17 | Evan | No Comments |

Sakura Flowering Rush about to take place in Japan 2021 March

One of the most popular times of the year for international travelers to visit Japan is spring when sakura, cherry blossoms are blooming. If you have visited Japan during this time, you know the beautiful pink sakura flowers spotted all over the country. For Japanese, sakura is extremely important and symbolic. There are many songs about sakura, and this time of the year, sakura truly holds a special place in Japanese people’s hearts. In this article, let’s dig in deeper about sakura, what it means to Japanese people, but also find out when we are expecting sakura to fully bloom in 2021. Of course, with the travel restrictions, we international travelers cannot visit Japan, but let’s learn about it so that maybe next year in 2022, we get to take a part in a photography tour of Japan to view the beautiful flowers and photograph them.

The significance of sakura to Japanese people

For Japanese, March is the month when you graduate or end the school/work year while April is the month of new beginning, to start a new grade, school, or work, thus sakura is extremely symbolic to Japanese to signify these special times of the year. For many Japanese, sakura is the flowers that are blooming at graduation and/or entrance ceremony so they often hold special feelings and memories to Japanese such as departure, end of school, end of relationship, as well as new beginning and new relationship. Yes, it’s a very complex feeling, thus sakura holds a special place in Japanese people’s hearts.

If you ever searched on YouTube for songs titled sakura, you find plenty (You might need to search using katakana, hiragana, and kanji to look for all!). Let me introduce one from Naotaro Moriyama, which is a very popular graduation song with a title sakura. If you can read the comments in Japanese, take some time to read the comments. Many Japanese people are leaving comments with personal stories associated with this song. Besides from the incredibly talented singer’s voice, the lyrics really speak to Japanese people. If you are curious about the lyrics, you can easily find the lyrics online, which can be translated instantly in Google search.

In addition to Naotaro Moriyama’ sakura, let me introduce another sakura by Ketsumeishi. While Naotaro Moriyama’s sakura has a feeling of students graduating from schools and departing from one another, this Ketsumeishi sakura version is for more grownups who are now working and are starting a new chapter in life.

Besides these two, there are many more songs titled sakura and songs that sing about this time of the year depicting sakura blooming and/or falling down. If you are curious, search more on your own and share with us which sakura song you like.

Japan is expecting the Sakura Flowering Rush in the 3rd week of March in 2021!

Ok, let’s get back to this year’s sakura forecast. According to the (use google translate) Japan Weather Association’s Ms. Yoshida, the 2nd week of March has had little ups and downs with temperature, but it has been on a high end so it is expected that sakura is going to start blooming in the 3rd week of March.

According to Ms. Yoshida, sakura has already flowered in Hiroshima on the 11th of March 2021 and Fukuoka on the 12th of March 2021, which are both the earliest since this recording has been made. This year’s flowering is roughly 10 days earlier than usual and Kyushu Region to Kanto Region is expected to see a flowering rush in the 3rd week of March.

As of March 13th 2021, Tokyo is expected to flower on the 16th, Nagoya on the 17th, and Osaka on the 19th. The full bloom is expected a week to 10 days since the flowering starts. Unfortunately, sakura viewing, “ohanami” to get together under a sakura tree is prohibited this year again, but Japanese people will be enjoying beautiful sakura very soon.

Unfortunately, except for Japanese people living in Japan, we cannot enjoy sakura blooming this year in Japan, but I am pretty sure many people will post these beautiful flowers very soon on social media so let’s keep an eye out for it. Also, there are some sakura in the US too so hopefully if you live near sakura in the US, you get to enjoy the beautiful spring flowers soon. Maybe when you see them next time, you might be thinking about what it means to Japanese by remembering perhaps your new favorite sakura song, which Introduced today or you discovered by surfing YouTube.

March 2021 Japan’s current COVID situations and travel restrictions

Mar 14 | Evan | Comments Off |

As of March 14th 2021, no foreigners, both tourists and business people, are allowed to enter Japan. These new strict restrictions were placed because of the new variants of COVID emerging around the world as well as the country’s number of infections increased dramatically in winter. Let’s dive deeper into what’s happening in Japan today and find out when we could take a photo tour of Japan next!

What’s happening in Japan today?

Last year on October 30th 2020, Japan lowered travel restrictions for certain countries, which have controlled the number of COVID infections. These countries included Australia, Brunei, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, with the rise of COVID as well as the new variants of COVID reporting around the world, currently as of March 14th, these programs have been temporarily suspended until further notice.

The Immigration Services Agencies of Japan indicates that unless there are special circumstances, any foreigners from or those visited 152 countries and regions are barred to travel to Japan today. This includes even the business travelers which come from the special business travel bubbles.

The 2nd State of Emergency

As of March 14th 2021, the 2nd state of emergency is still in place to these prefectures:　Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba. The 2nd state of emergency was planned from January 7th to February 7th initially, but it was extended to March 7th and then further extended for 2 more weeks till March 21st for those 4 prefectures listed above.

The 2nd state of emergency was placed for eleven prefectures including Tokyo, Aichi, Chiba, Fukuoka, Gifu, Hyogo, Kanagawa, Kyoto, Osaka, Saitama, and Shizuoka. Originally, on January 7th 2021, the 2nd state of emergency was placed for Tokyo and the greater Tokyo areas including 4 prefectures, Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa by the Prime Minister Suga. However, this state of emergency was soon expanded to 7 more prefectures on January 13th 2021 to include Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Aichi, Gifu, Tochigi, and Fukuoka.

So how is the 2nd state of emergency going? Originally, it was placed till Feb 7th, but with the high number of COVID infections and Japanese medical systems struggling to keep up with the high demand, it was extended till March 7th. With the extension of the state of emergency, most of the prefectures remained, except for Tochigi prefecture, which ended the state of emergency on Feb 7th, the original date. In addition, on March 1st, except for Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba prefectures, 6 prefectures ended the state of emergency.

During this state of emergency, restaurants are expected to close by 8:00p.m., train systems shorten their operation hours, and companies are encouraged to facilitate remote work as much as possible. In addition, sports and entertainment are operating with limited capacities.

Furthermore, with this came the total ban of foreigners to enter Japan. On Feb 9th 2021, the Prime Minister Suga announced all foreign nationals, both tourists and business people (even the ones who were formally welcomed from the travel bubble countried), are barred from entering the country. From what we gathered, it seems it’s not so soon for us to take a part of a photography tour of Japan, isn’t it?

Will Japan be open for the summer Olympics?

Despite 80% or so Japanese people are against having the summer Olympics in 2021, Japanese government is hoping to still hold the summer Olympics in 2021. With that said, everyone is curious how the country is going to reopen its border safely and if it is even possible.

According to the survey carried by Kyodo News, 35.3% of people want the Olympics to be canceled while 44.8% of people want it to be postponed. With the Olympics scheduled to be held on July 23rd to 8th and the Paralympics scheduled to be held on Aug 24th to Sep 5th, everyone has a simple question in mind, “is there even enough time?” Moreover, every Japanese is worried “is it even safe for Japanese and the country?” There is only 4 more months till the Olympics and the country is currently completely barring any foreigners to enter, what’s possible in 4 months?

On the contrary, according to the Japan Times, Japan is considering lifting its bans for foreigners to travel to Japan in April. However, this article was written in October 2020 and since then, a lot has happened and changed and so the reality of this happening is hard to measure. Though this is not the isolated article. There are many media reporting about Japan opening its borders to foreigners some time in Spring to be ready for the Olympics. Though as of March 14th 2021, nothing is certain. There is yet any announcement from the government or the Olympics committee thus we have no idea what is really going to happen at the moment.

More recent development the media started to report is to have the Olympics without international visitors. Though this excludes sponsors etc. so Japanese people are genuinely worried about what impacts this might still bring to the country. Furthermore, many celebrities originally signed up to take a part of the torch relay have been resigning. Many indicate that the 2021 schedule no longer allows them to participate, but others indicate to exhibit their animosity and uneasiness about being a part of the Olympics during the pandemic. In short, only 4 more months till the Olympics, so much is unknown and there is not a whole lot of support from the Japanese people especially when the government is heavily involved in the Olympics and the Olympics committee is not clearly indicating what course of action to take when it is supposed to happen in the 2021 summer.

athletes running on track and field oval in grayscale photography

So, can we travel to Japan today (March 14, 2021)?

Unfortunately, the answer is NO! At the moment, Japan has closed its borders to everyone, even the business travelers who were formally allowed to enter Japan. The only people who can re-enter Japan are the Japanese nationals as well as foreign residents who have been living in Japan with a negative COVID test, which is taken 72 hours before traveling back to the country.

Though, there is a possibility of Japan slowly and safely opening its borders as early as April 2021 or late spring. With the Pfizer vaccines finally making its way to Japan in Feb 2021, the country is trying to vaccinate as many people as possible just like the rest of the world. As many of you are eager to participate in the Photo Tour of Japan, we hope to update when the border reopens for anybody to travel to Japan or any drastic change is made to Japan’s COVID travel restrictions.

Tour of Japan | Cary Academy Goes to Japan 2019 – FAQ Part 3

Aug 01 | Evan | No Comments |

Sometimes when you’ve visited a place a few times, it can be easy to forget all the little things that you noticed when you first visited. Traveling with someone who has never visited a place helps you to remember what you first noticed and to notice new things as well! Teenagers are especially fun to travel with because they’re not afraid to ask questions. The next couple of blog posts will focus on the “frequently asked questions” that this year’s group asked. Perhaps you’ll have some of the same questions when we visit Japan!

TeamLab Planets

Can we do that again?

Of all the questions our students ask, our favorite is “can we do that again?” or its twin, “can we stay longer?” Most students’ favorite experience on our trip was visiting Team Lab: Planets, an immersive art installation is Odaiba, one of the newer areas of Tokyo created out of reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay. Team Lab is an artist collective that creates pieces unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. At “Planets”, we jumped in giant bean bags, walked through knee-high water with digital “fish” floating in it, and walked through strings or lights and a room of giant floating spheres. Elements of the installations were static, but typically you’d never experience the same room the same way twice. Your movements and the timing of your visit, combined with the movements of the people around you, create a unique experience each time you visit. Students wanted to go through another time after we finished!

TeamLab Planets 2

Students also really enjoyed Orizuru Tower in Hiroshima. The top of the tower has an amazing observation deck that overlooks the “Atomic Bomb Dome” and the Peace Park and provides a beautiful vantage point to see the entire city and the nearby mountains. “Orizuru” means crane, a reference to the ubiquitous paper cranes associated with Sadako and the children’s peace monument. Students especially liked the slide (yes, like a playground) that made up part of the path down from the top of the tower. They wanted to walk back up and slide again! Other popular “repeat” spots included arcades, ice cream shops, and covered shopping arcades like Teramachi in Kyoto. It’s fun to return to a favorite store or restaurant when I visit Japan, and it’s so rewarding when students want to return too.

That’s it for the “FAQ” and our 2019 trip report. We’re excited about the 2020 trip. Traveling in Japan is always a great experience, and we hope that our students will stay curious and keep asking questions!

This summer, Japan Photo Guide by Evan Pike was once again able to offer a spectacular trip to Japan just for Cary Academy students. Katie Taylor, 6th grade Language Arts teacher and Japan enthusiast, co-led the group with Evan. We began our trip in Tokyo, then traveled to Nagoya, Hiroshima, and Kyoto before returning home from Osaka. This post is written by Katie Taylor, a 6^th grade teacher at Cary Academy and Japan enthusiast. Read about our 2016 trip to Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kyoto or see all reports from the 2018 tour of Japan or 2019 tour of Japan.

Tour of Japan | Cary Academy Goes to Japan 2019 – FAQ Part 2

Jul 31 | Evan | No Comments |

“Why do they do that?”

For example, why do they stay so quiet on the train? Since most Japanese cities are very densely populated, travelers are often surprised at how quiet it is. The trains/subways are particularly quiet, especially when one is accustomed to travel on trains in the United States. Our students this year actually downloaded a decibel meter on one of their phones to help them judge their volume compared to those around us. We talked with students about cultural differences and how in the United States we typically have a “individual first” mentality whereas group comfort is typically more important in Japan. You may have heard that the new Japanese era is “reiwa” – the character that is pronounced “wa” means harmony, but not musical harmony. It specifically relates to harmony within the social group.

Another common question is why the Japanese remove their shoes when indoors. Most people know that the Japanese generally don’t wear shoes inside their homes, but we make sure that students are prepared to remove their shoes in some restaurants, temples/shrines, and even in the fitting rooms in clothing stores. We also have to be careful not to step with our clean socks on the dirty outside floor or step on the clean inside floor with our dirty shoes while taking them off. I’ve been to Japan five times, and I still don’t get it right all of the time! This is also related to “wa”, the concept of harmony within the social group. In this case, it’s a matter of taking special care to keep shared areas clean. Our tea ceremony gave us a great opportunity to learn about and practice “wa.” We also learned about “kei”- respect; “sei”- purity; and “jaku” -tranquility. Our host taught us how we can consider these four concepts as we participate in a tea ceremony. It was amazing how calm and focused we were during the calligraphy lesson after the ceremony!

“What is this?”

This question came up pretty much every day, usually at least once during every meal! Students fell in love with conveyor belt sushi and wanted to try everything, but wanted to know what they were trying! This was also a common question in convenience stores, which we visited most days. This year’s group loved trying new snacks and drinks. “Straight Tea” and chocolate were both especially popular this time around. Another favorite was momiji manju, maple-leaf cakes filled with soft fillings in various flavors. It was fun to discover different flavors and compare the different bakeries’ styles. Students were also curious about pretty much everything at shrines and temples. “What is this gate? What are those little wooden thingies? What is this cow?”