Solo-seen sakura are sometimes the best sakura.

With sakura season in full swing, a lot of Japanese morning news shows are going out to local cherry blossom spots to interview people enjoying the views. For the most part, they’re lighthearted little segments, but one that our Japanese-language reporter Mariko Ohanabatake saw rubbed her the wrong way.

In that segment, the news crew was talking to a man in his 30s who they’d spotted sitting on a bench by himself in the park and sipping a coffee or some other kind of canned soft drink. When they asked if he’d come to do hanami (cherry blossom viewing) by himself, he said he had. The interviewer followed that up by asking if he had a girlfriend, and when he said he didn’t, the interviewer then asked what kind of person he’d like to date, and the segment ended with the news crew saying “Hopefully love will bloom for him like the flowers.”

Now, it’s undeniable that the beauty of the cherry blossoms makes hanami a great date activity, and spending the day looking at the sakura with a group of friends or family is also an awesome way to spend a spring day. But Mariko is firmly of the mind that there’s nothing wrong or weird about solo cherry blossom viewing, and in fact firmly believes that there are ways in which going to see sakura by yourself is actually better than doing so with other people.

How so? Let’s let Mariko count the ways.

1. Less gear and difficulty staking out a spot

The most beautiful sakura spots tend to also be the most famous and popular, which means they’re also often the most crowded. So if you’re going to a famous hanami venue with other people, someone, i.e. you if you’re the one organizing the get-together, is going to have to show up early and/or fight the crowds in order to stake out a spot for your group. That means you’ll also need to lug the tarp, cooler, and any other necessary gear to accommodate multiple members to the park, and then carry it all back home later.

With solo sakura-viewing, though, you’re free from all that hassle. Even at popular parks, it’s pretty easy to find enough space for a single person to sit down, and you won’t need a tarp, as a basic outdoor cushion will do for a solo session. As an added bonus, if while you’re doing your hanami a loud, rowdy, or otherwise disagreeable group of revelers sets up near you, it’s a lot easier to move to a more pleasant part of the park when you’re by yourself. For that matter, going to see cherry blossoms by yourself means that you don’t even need to find a place to sit if you don’t want to. Going for an extended stroll under the blossom-filled branches is a logistical challenge for a big group, but if you’re on your own, you’ve got the freedom to wander wherever you feel like.

2. No need to coordinate schedules

Japan doesn’t exactly have the world’s most evenly distributed work/life balance, and between busy jobs, a reliance on public transportation, and the narrow window of when the sakura are in bloom, trying to coordinate schedules for a cherry blossom party can be a nightmarish exercise in futility. Person A will come if Person B does, but Person B is busy on the weekend. So how about after work on a weekday? Sure, but Person C often has to work overtime, so they’re not sure what time they’ll make it, so don’t wait for them, and Person D has to transfer trains multiple times on their way home from the park, so they really wouldn’t be able to stay very long. Even tourists have to juggle schedules, since different members of the group will have different non-sakura sights they want to see on their trip. Oh, and you’d better hope that weather is going to be good on whatever day you actually can all find a common slice of free time during the week or so when the blossoms look their best.

But once again, all of that becomes a non-issue if you’re going out to see the cherry blossoms by yourself. As long as you’ve got free time, it’s sakura time! Wake up in the morning on your day off, notice it’s nice and sunny, and want to do a full-on out-of-town hanami day trip? Go for it! You’re not on anyone’s schedule but your own.

3. You can make it as much about the flowers, or as little, as you want

There are two sides to the appeal of hanami. One is, of course, being able to bask in the beauty of the flowers, but there’s also the fun of drinking, snacking, and socializing. If you’re doing your cherry blossom viewing with other people, there’s a need to go along with the overall average of their preferences. Some people might be fine spending just a few minutes looking at the sakura, and then cracking open the beers and drinking enough that their view of the blossoms is blurry for the entire rest of the day. Other may take a busier flower-oriented approach, feeling that any time spent sitting around would be better used to get up and see other parts of the park or tree-lined path.

Solo sakura viewing, though, lets you spend every minute of the outing exactly how you like. If you’ve found a view that’s so captivating that you want to quietly gaze at it and let its majesty sink in, there’s no pressure to socialize or make small talk if you’re on your own. If you’re a bookworm, you can read a book as the falling petals flutter around them, and if you’re a shutterbug you can fiddle with camera settings and lens angles to your heart’s content. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you’ve had your fill of a view after 15 minutes and are ready to move on to someplace else, you’re not going to be spoiling anyone’s good time by doing so, even if that means you’re done with your hanami for the day.

▼ Some people will feel like they’ve spent enough time here once they’ve snapped a few selfies, while others could spend hours watching how the flowers dance and clouds flow in the wind.

So remember, while there’s a lot of fun to be had from seeing cherry blossoms with other people, the only company you really need for hanami is yourself, and the only wrong way to enjoy sakura season is to deprive yourself of the joy of seeing Japan’s famous flowers.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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