Photo/Illutration Signs posted around Ueno Park in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward ask visitors to refrain from partying under the cherry trees. (Kayoko Sekiguchi)

In the classic "rakugo" number "Nagaya no Hanami," the landlord of a rundown "nagaya" tenement row house treats the tenant laborers to a "hanami" cherry blossom viewing party in the Ueno district of old Edo (present-day Tokyo).

But being hard up himself, the landlord cannot afford sake, so he fills a sake bottle with watered-down tea and calls it "o-chake," a pun on the Japanese "cha" (tea).

The tenants are at first miffed by the substitution of sake with o-chake, which means their boozy "sakamori" (drinking bout) will only be a teetotal "chakamori."

But they soon get into the spirit of this make-believe carousal like good sports, pretending to get drunk and showing off to other revelers what a grand time they are having.

In the real world, I expect there will be many more alcohol-free hanami outings this year than ever before. With the COVID-19 pandemic necessitating social distancing, people are being asked to refrain from getting together for hanami drinking parties. In fact, the latter are banned in Tokyo's Ueno Park, one of the most popular hanami spots.

Although the virus is less contagious outdoors, experts are worried about people becoming intoxicated and inadvertently coming into physical contact with fellow merrymakers.

So, how about filling your water bottle with tea or coffee to go on a nice, peaceful stroll during the coming long weekend? The present mild weather should make cherry blossoms start blooming everywhere.

German physician and anthropologist Erwin Balz (1849-1913) recalled in his diary a hanami scene he saw in Tokyo's Mukojima district during the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

Sunlight danced on the river. Overhead, the branches of the cherry trees that lined the river banks were heavy with blossoms. People gazed up adoringly while ambling at leisure. There was not a noisy drunkard to disturb the peace.

Balz described the Japanese as "well-mannered to the core." But I wonder what his take would have been, had he gone to Ueno Park instead.

Throughout Japan, I imagine the majority of hanami outings this year will be more like what Balz saw in Mukojima.

The punchline of the rakugo "Nagaya no Hanami" goes to the effect, "Something lucky is going to happen at the tenement house soon. Here, take a look at this 'sakabashira.'"

"Sakabashira" (literally, "sake pillar") is a made-up word, a pun on "chabashira" (tea pillar), which denotes a tea stem floating vertically in the tea cup--a phenomenon that is seen as an auspicious omen. 

This punchline makes me smile every time I hear it.

A lot of things going on now are rather depressing. But we need to make sure to stop and smell the roses--or rather, look up at the cherry blossoms.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 20

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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