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Solo-seen sakura are sometimes the best sakura<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019re lighthearted little segments, but one that our Japanese-language reporter Mariko Ohanabatake<\/strong> saw rubbed her the wrong way.<\/p>\n In that segment, the news crew was talking to a man in his 30s who they\u2019d 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\u2019d come to do hanami<\/strong> (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\u2019t, the interviewer then asked what kind of person he\u2019d like to date, and the segment ended with the news crew saying \u201cHopefully love will bloom for him like the flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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<\/strong>.<\/p>\n How so? Let\u2019s let Mariko count the ways.<\/p>\n 1. Less gear and difficulty staking out a spot<\/strong><\/p>\n The most beautiful sakura spots tend to also be the most famous and popular, which means they\u2019re also often the most crowded. So if you\u2019re going to a famous hanami venue with other people, someone, i.e. you if you\u2019re 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<\/strong>. That means you\u2019ll also need to lug the tarp, cooler, and any other necessary gear <\/strong>to accommodate multiple members to the park, and then carry it all back home later.<\/p>\n With solo sakura-viewing, though, you\u2019re free from all that hassle<\/strong>. Even at popular parks, it\u2019s pretty easy to find enough space for a single person to sit down, and you won\u2019t need a tarp, as a basic outdoor cushion will do for a solo session. As an added bonus, if while you\u2019re doing your hanami a loud, rowdy, or otherwise disagreeable group of revelers sets up near you, it\u2019s a lot easier to move to a more pleasant part of the park when you\u2019re by yourself. For that matter, going to see cherry blossoms by yourself means that you don\u2019t even need to find a place to sit if you don\u2019t want to. Going for an extended stroll under the blossom-filled branches is a logistical challenge for a big group, but if you\u2019re on your own, you\u2019ve got the freedom to wander wherever you feel like.<\/p>\n 2. No need to coordinate schedules<\/strong><\/p>\n Japan doesn\u2019t exactly have the world\u2019s 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<\/strong>. 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\u2019re not sure what time they\u2019ll make it, so don\u2019t wait for them, and Person D has to transfer trains multiple times on their way home from the park, so they really wouldn\u2019t 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.\u00a0Oh, and you\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n But once again, all of that becomes a non-issue if you\u2019re going out to see the cherry blossoms by yourself. As long as you\u2019ve<\/em> got free time, it\u2019s sakura time!<\/strong> Wake up in the morning on your day off, notice it\u2019s nice and sunny, and want to do a full-on out-of-town hanami day trip? Go for it! You\u2019re not on anyone\u2019s schedule but your own.<\/p>\n 3. You can make it as much about the flowers, or as little, as you want<\/strong><\/p>\n There are two sides to the appeal of hanami<\/strong>. One is, of course, being able to bask in the beauty of the flowers, but there\u2019s also the fun of drinking, snacking, and socializing. If you\u2019re doing your cherry blossom viewing with other people, there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Solo sakura viewing, though, lets you spend every minute of the outing exactly how you lik<\/strong>e. If you\u2019ve found a view that\u2019s so captivating that you want to quietly gaze at it and let its majesty sink in, there\u2019s no pressure to socialize or make small talk if you\u2019re on your own<\/strong>. If you\u2019re a bookworm, you can read a book as the falling petals flutter around them, and if you\u2019re a shutterbug you can fiddle with camera settings and lens angles to your heart\u2019s content. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you\u2019ve had your fill of a view after 15 minutes and are ready to move on to someplace else, you\u2019re not going to be spoiling anyone\u2019s good time by doing so, even if that means you\u2019re done with your hanami for the day.<\/p>\n \u25bc Some people will feel like they\u2019ve spent enough time here once they\u2019ve snapped a few selfies, while others could spend hours watching how the flowers dance and clouds flow in the wind.<\/p>\n So remember, while there\u2019s 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\u2019s famous flowers.<\/p>\n Photos \u00a9SoraNews24<\/em> 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/ss-2.jpg?w=640\")
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