Citybillies,
it’s confession time.
The
rumors are true. I’ve sold out.
Jon
Spruce has officially signed on the dotted line.
For
two years now, I have meticulously and courageously hunted down and archived the
kingdom of Philly trees but, behind the scenes, hidden from view, I’ve been
bombarded and assaulted with endless requests for sponsorship.
Landscape
crews and tree services, nurseries and greenhouses, fertilizer companies and
seed catalogs, you name it. Non-profits
and charities, all good causes.
Philadelphia institutions like Aramark and Tastykake, Sunoco, Comcast,
Action News and Lew Blum Towing, all knocking down my door.
All
asking for a piece of the pie.
For
the last two years, I’ve always had the same response.
Hold the gravy.
Until
now.
I’ve
finally found something that I can hang my hat on.
Citybillies,
it’s hanami time and there’s no
better way to spend it than participating in the Subaru™ Cherry Blossom
Festival of Greater Philadelphia.
What
is hanami? It means flower
viewing in Japanese and it refers to the annual blossoming of the cherry
blossoms, the sakura.
This
event is so anticipated that even the Japanese Meteorological Agency tracks and
charts the sakura blooms throughout
the whole island.
They
call it the sakura zazen, loosely
translated as the cherry blossom front.
According
to the map, the sakura are currently flowering
in the southern part of the island, blazing their way from Kagoshima through
the old capital of Kyoto and, by the end of April, they will have reached the
northern tip of the Aomori Prefecture, land of apples and wild horses.
Some
people call it the pink tide.
I
long to see it in person.
Hanami has been on the
calendar for centuries now, observed and celebrated by emperors and farmers,
royalty and peasants, city rats and country mice alike…
…immortalized
throughout the ages by songsters, dancers, poets and painters, including the
great 18th-century printmaker Katsushika Hokusai…
…who
famously depicted the brief sakura in
the foreground of Japan’s most exalted marvel…
…the
ephemeral floating world of early
spring balanced against the immovable permanence of Mount Fuji itself.
Now
that’s my kind of yin-yang.
Here
in Philadelphia, we’re less than one week away from our own hanami.
Hold
on to your hats, citybillies, and get on up!
The sakura are marching,
cherry blossoms about to set the city on fire.
In
anticipation of the event, I floated over to the Shofuso Japanese House…
…and
then to the nearby cherry tree avenue that connects the House to the Mann Music
Center.
I’m
getting nervous.
Less than a week away from the big bash and the guest of honor is hardly making a peep.
Just
my luck.
