Chasing Cherry Blossoms

"What happens to a dream deferred?" Langston Hughes asks in his poem.

Ever since I was a child, I've dreamed of visiting Japan. When I got much older, I specifically added its Hokkaido Prefecture to my list of places to visit as I was curious to see the place Haruki Murakami made so magical in A Wild Sheep Chase. However, from the inception of this plan, my ultimate reason for visiting this country was totally unrelated to its literary relevance. I really just wanted to witness the sakura zensen or cherry blossom front. I planned to travel across Japan, following the  cherry blossoms' advance across the country.

For many years, I kept both planning and pushing back my dream trip. In 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, causing a tsunami with 30-foot waves that damaged nuclear reactors and took thousands of lives. I didn't want to visit so soon after the disaster as I was scared of being exposed to radiation. Thus, my dream of going to Japan to chase cherry blossoms was temporarily crushed. I was still living in the Philippines at the time – so close to Japan – so I figured that I could just postpone the trip until conditions improved. I was wrong. I ended up visiting other countries in the succeeding years and moved to the U.S. in 2015.

Months before moving, I realized that the probability of visiting Japan had significantly diminished due to geographic constraints. I was no longer going to be just a five-hour flight away. However, a silver lining appeared in the form of photos sent to me by my fiancé (now husband). Nature had announced the coming of spring in Seattle through its appointed town crier: cherry blossoms!

I was so jubilant when I found out that they can also be found in Seattle. A research I made much later showed that the flowering cherry trees were gifts from Japan and were first planted in great numbers in Seattle in 1929.

I arrived in Washington towards the end of summer, so I knew that the wait was going to be long. When March came this year, I couldn't be happier. I especially wanted to see the cherry blossoms in the University of Washington's main campus as I had seen in the photos the year before.

Last Saturday, my friends and I decided to have our Saturday running rendezvous at the UW campus. I've never been there before. When I arrived, the sky was gray, the air was cold and a light drizzle danced on my path as I walked to our meeting place.

It didn't take long for the mood to change, though. Walking to our meeting place, splashes of color from spring flowers here and there greeted me. I was also impressed by the Harry Potter-like architecture of the buildings that towered over me. Then came the familiar faces and beautiful smiles of my friends. We walked towards the "Quad" where I had my first glimpse of UW's flowering cherry trees.

After an energizing run, the sun came out and the sky turned blue. Along with the impressive architecture,  they were a beautiful background for these breathtakingly beautiful cherry blossoms in full bloom. 

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...."

A windstorm hit Seattle this week. I'm pretty sure many of the flowers were blown away. I'm just glad that I was able to witness their beauty at their best.

In Japan, when the blossoms come, people celebrate with picnics under the trees. This flower viewing festival called Hanami is for people to stop and make the most of the moment. My dream trip to Japan will have to wait for now, I guess. In the mean time, I wonder if we can have a similar event here in Seattle where we can picnic under the cherry trees and really be present in the moment. After all, life, just like the beauty of cherry blossoms, is so transient.

(Photos taken with my Windows phone)