The Cherry Blossoms That Haven't Bloomed Yet

Hanami~! Let’s go to hanami~♪

…the window.

Hm?

…look at it, nya.

…

…they haven’t bloomed, nya.

I know that! But the forecast says April 26th! I saw it on tenki.jp!

…a forecast, though, nya.

Ten days earlier than usual! That’s exciting, right?!

…ten days early and it’s still April 26th, nya.

…yeah.

…today is April 6th, nya.

…yeah.

…that’s twenty days, nya.

I KNOW! But planning early is better, right? That’s all I’m saying!

…you plan after it blooms, nya.

…hold on.

…nya

I went and looked at the tree by the balcony.

…nya

There were tiny round things lined up at the tips of the branches. Really hard. I touched one — it wouldn’t move at all.

…a tsubomi. Still sleeping, nya.

This is gonna be a flower in twenty days?

…it’ll bloom when it blooms, nya.

…so anyway, why are Hokkaido’s cherry blossoms so much later? Tokyo’s are already gone.

…cold, nya.

Yeah but — here’s the interesting part. The cold is actually necessary.

…nya?

Cherry buds need winter’s cold to break out of dormancy. Then they need spring’s warmth to actually grow. Two stages. Hokkaido nails the first stage — deep freeze, perfect — but the warmth comes so late that the second stage just keeps getting pushed back.

…without the cold it can’t wake up, nya.

Exactly. Has to freeze first, then bloom.

…nya

But that’s not even what surprised me most. I found something way more interesting.

…nya

The species is completely different. Hokkaido’s cherry trees aren’t even the same tree as the rest of Japan.

Most of Japan’s cherry blossoms are Somei-Yoshino. All of them — clones. They’re propagated by cutting, so every single tree has identical DNA.

…all the same tree, nya.

Yep. That’s why the cherry blossom front works — they all bloom at the same time because they’re all genetically the same tree. National uniformity, perfectly scheduled.

But Hokkaido has Ezo-yamazakura — Hokkaido’s native cherry species.

…Ezo-yamazakura.

It grows from seed. Sexual reproduction, so every tree has its own genetic variation. The color can go from pale pink to deep rose — no two trees look the same.

…

And — Somei-Yoshino blooms before the leaves come out. Ezo-yamazakura blooms and leafs out at the same time. Reddish leaves mixed with pink flowers, so from far away the whole tree looks like this deep, layered pink.

…each one has its own face, nya.

Miko — you’re interested, aren’t you?

…it’s not like that, nya.

…I just think that lining up identical flowers everywhere——

…yeah?

…the other kind is the real thing, nya.

…Miko, you almost never say things like that.

…I say it all the time, nya.

Somei-Yoshino has its good points too though. Easy to manage, predictable bloom schedule—

…convenient, nya.

Yeah, convenient!

…convenient and right are different things, nya.

…

…Miko, are you kind of rooting for the Ezo-yamazakura?

…there’s no reason to go out of your way to make them all the same when they’re all naturally different, nya.

…that’s kind of like your grandmother, y’know. Try things, keep what deserves to stay.

…Obaa-sama has nothing to do with this, nya.

…so, hey.

…nya

Back to the original question — when are we going to hanami?

…when it blooms, nya.

I mean WHEN!

…when it blooms, nya.

Miko! The forecast says April 26th, so we could just pick the 27th or 28th right now!

…what if the forecast is wrong, nya.

Then we move the date!

…then there’s no point deciding now, nya.

…

But I wanna look forward to it. I wanna spend the next twenty days going “okay, eighteen more days, okay, fifteen more—”

…you always do that, nya.

Do what?

…talk about things that haven’t come yet like they’re already here, nya.

…

…in Netsuki’s head, the cherry blossoms are already blooming. You’ve already picked the spot. You’re already thinking about what to pack. You’re already walking there with Onii-chan, all three of us, nya.

…yeah. I am.

…no matter how many times you simmer it in your head, you won’t know the taste until you lift the lid, nya.

…

…Netsuki is saying “delicious” before the lid comes off, nya.

…

…even if I imagine it a hundred times, I think I’m gonna cry when I actually see them.

…nya

Because imagined cherry blossoms don’t have wind. No smell. No petals brushing your cheek.

I think imagining it a hundred times is exactly why the 101st one — that moment when you go “oh — it’s actually real” — hits so hard. Right?

…

Oh! One more thing. Hokkaido hanami is really unique.

…nya

Jingisukan.

…at hanami, nyan?

You set up a grill under the cherry trees and cook jingisukan — Mongolian-style lamb BBQ. 77% of Hokkaido residents have done it!

…hanami is for looking at flowers, nya. You look at flowers.

You look at flowers AND grill lamb! Flowers AND meat! Best of both worlds!(≧∇≦)

…the smoke will cover the blossoms, nya.

You can still see them! Look up — cherry blossoms. Look down — jingisukan. PERFECT combo!

…

And — this has been going on since the Showa 30s. That’s the 1950s and 60s. Hokkaido hanami has been jingisukan from the very beginning. It’s a tradition that goes back generations.

…

Miko?

…dinner prep, nya.

Hey — you’re running away!

Miko! I still have more jingisukan facts——

…

She’s gone.

…the “tradition since the Showa 30s” thing got to her, huh.