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Hanami in Washington, D.C.

The dazzling sunshine intensifies the bright white of the cherry blossoms against the clear blue sky backdrop, and I'm awestruck at the amazing beauty. My Chinese friend, Amy, wants to attend the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. She thinks it would be good to compare notes. The two of us viewed cherry blossoms in China in the city where we lived and met, and I attended a few hanami ("flower viewing") when I lived in Japan. Neither of us have experienced the festival in the nation's capital and it looks like we are in for a treat and we're not even out of the car.

A few weeks before our trip to Washington, D.C., we checked the status of the festival with the National Park Service which monitors the trees around the Tidal Basin. Usually the Yoshino cherry tree blooms reach their peak during the very end of March and beginning of April when about 70 percent of the trees are in full flower. The blooms only last a few days and it's hard to predict when the best viewing will be since weather and damage to the trees from animals and insects can affect the blooms.

We decide to go near the end of March, at the beginning of the three-week fete, which commemorates the gift of the Japanese cherry trees from Mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, to the city of Washington, D.C. to celebrate the growing friendship between the United States and Japan.

Unfortunately, we will not be viewing the original gift of the 2,000 trees sent in 1910, since these were burned by the Department of Agriculture because they were infested with pests and it was important to protect other flora in the area. When the Japanese Ambassador, Mr. Takamine, heard about the diseased trees, he arranged for President Taft and the people of the United States to receive an additional 3,020 trees from Japan.

Twelve cultivars were taken from the Arakawa River bank in Tokyo and on February 14, 1912 sent via ship and rail, to arrive in Washington on March 26. The next day, the First Lady and the wife of the Japanese ambassador planted two trees in West Potomac Park. In return, the US gave Japan a gift of flowering dogwood trees. Amy and I read the plaque located at the end of 17th Street SW commemorating this gift. Then, in 1965 the Japanese gave the people of the United States 3,800 more trees. They were planted on the grounds of the Washington Monument in a re-enactment of the 1912 planting by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson and the new Japanese ambassador's wife.

We've timed our visit just right. We've caught the end of the blooming season of the Weeping Cherry trees, but there are thousands of trees laden with the single white blossoms of the Yoshino and the pale pink blossoms of the Akebono varieties. The pale pink double blossoms of the Kwanzan cultivar will open in about two weeks.

We don't celebrate in the Japanese style, my favorite, especially since we plan to view the trees only during the day. In Japan, a group of friends and family celebrates the arrival of spring, by bringing mats to put on the ground under the trees, which do little good to keep out the damp and cold. Everyone contributes to the shared picnic under the lights strung in the trees. Looking up, it's like viewing a dense white cloud that fades to black. We sing the song "Sakura sakura...

mi-watasu kagiri" (cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms...as far as the eye can see).

After many beers and hot sake, people begin to reminisce and wax eloquent about spring, beauty, and lost loved ones and the fragility of life all of which the delicate blossoms represent.  Amy explains that in the Buddhist tradition, the cherry blossom symbolizes wisdom because it's like the mind opening up. The blossoms are short-lived and soon carpet the ground after a heavy wind or rain. They remind us of the shortness of life.

Enough reminiscing. Amy whips out her camera and I suddenly realize she plans to celebrate Chinese style, although I don't say this out loud. With thick, glossy blue-black hair, Amy is a classic beauty, her porcelain skin punctuated by deep brown almond-shaped eyes, a delicate nose, and a raspberry moue. I find myself silently wishing we were back in the days of film cameras, when it was expensive to buy and develop. Then, I might have only taken about 36 poses, rather than the hundreds Amy wants: hands near her face, peeking through the blossoms, hugging a tree, sitting, standing. The digital camera has become my nemesis.

We're not the only ones taking photos, but the park doesn't seem crowded--the festival enjoys over 700,000 visitors each year.  There is a lot to do on this gorgeous day, but we are here to see and experience the actual flowers, and, I now realize, take a whole lot of pictures. Colorful kites bounce against the blue sky to the cacophony of marching bands from around the country, as a parade of floats and flowers pass us by.

Each week there is some new aspect of the festival. We will miss Family Day at the National Building Museum, the opening ceremony in the Warner Theatre, as well as Cherry Blast at the Anacostia Warehouse which hosts eclectic and alternative music and dance representative of the neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. area. The festival ends with fireworks, and the Cherry Blossom Pageant, started in 1940.  The Festival Queen will wear the Mikimoto Pearl Crown, donated by Mr. Mikimoto Kokichi of The Pearl Company, with its more than five pounds of gold and 1,585 pearls to the Grand Ball.

The best part of our excursion takes place on nearby 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, at the Sakura Matsuri, or Japanese Street Festival, the largest Japanese cultural festival in the United States. We check out the line-up of interesting cultural events, my preference being the Japanese kimono fashions, music, and dance performances. I sample food I miss from living in Japan like yakitori (chicken on a stick) and real ramen noodles in soup. I'm not a fan of rice wine, but Amy samples some sushi and sake, her cheeks now flushed to match the color of the blooms, so we don't take any more pictures, but she will have plenty as a reminder of this trip. Like the blossoms, our time here is short, and I make a mental note to celebrate my own cherry blossom festival by planting a few trees in my yard this spring.