Tokyo: Ceremonies and Alarms
Sakura
Cherry blossom viewing is is an iconic spring event in Japan – but conditions are not what you think they might be.
Cherry blossoms at Ueno
In most places in the world where cherry trees grow, you can choose beautiful spring days to go to see them. But in Japan, which treats blossom viewing as a ceremonial family obligation, cherries bloom at the worst time of year, the time of constant rains. Here, blossom viewers are getting the hot drinks that are essential at cherry blossom time
Shichigosan
At the ages of seven, five and three – the name is these numbers run together – children are dressed elaborately and presented at the temple for what is roughly equivalent to confirmation. This is the most important dress-up occasion of childhood.
Fire!
Tokyo has a strong building code for earthquake risk, but nothing is more feared in the city than fire. There is a lot of wooden construction because, as in nineteenth-century San Francisco, wood minimized earthquake damage, so although steel is the norm for new construction, there is stilll a lot of wood around.
Here in utilitarian Ningyocho, a small factory is burning.
