On a Diamond Princess Cruise through Japan, travelers search for the elusive beauty of cherry blossoms in bloom.
We are hunting cherry blossoms.
It’s a focal point of the Spring Flowers cruise itinerary aboard Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess, an eight-night treasure hunt by sea, sailing around the main island of Honshu in the Japanese archipelago.
Hanami is the Japanese tradition of enjoying the fleeting beauty of flowers. The welcoming of spring under the blossoming of the cherry tree, sakura, has been celebrated in festivals across Japan for centuries.
As the granddaughter of a green thumb, I grew up in Canada with an appreciation for changing seasons. Even more than that, I want to see the phenomenon of cherry blossom season in person for a reason far more sinister to the Japanese: tattoos. I love tattoo art incorporating traditional Japanese aesthetics, such as the images that made Costa Mesa’s Don Ed Hardy famous. Hardy was one of the first Westerners to study in Japan under traditional tattoo artists, learning the ancient art of Irezumi or “inserting ink.”
And while it’s true that traditional Japanese society may have an unfavorable opinion of tattoos, and having visible ink will keep you out of an onsen, or bathhouse, for me, they’ve fostered a longing to bear witness to the real-life subjects.
TOKYO
We fly into Tokyo to spend a few days before boarding the ship in Yokohama. We go from dodging thousands of people in Shibuya Crossing underneath blinding walls of flickering digital billboards to a contemplative stroll through the massive wooden torii gate of the Meiji Shrine. We are only steps away from the trendy shops lining Takeshita Street and the famous Harajuku girls, but you would never know it. The only sounds are the birds, the air redolent of 100,000 camphor trees.
Later, we view the city from high atop Tokyo Tower, the city stretching out to no end. But in Tokyo, the cherry blossoms have already fallen. The only ones we find adorn the colorful yukatas worn by many of the women wandering down Nakamise Shopping Street for festival season. I can’t help but follow them, clutching my fortune printed on a slip of paper from Senso-ji Temple: “An arrow you shoot always gets a target, so watch the direction of your arrow.”
Sitting in the bus that will take us to Yokohama and the cruise ship, we follow the cherry blossom forecast on our phones, hoping to find ourselves standing in the calm, perfect center of the flurry of sakura.
It isn’t until our fourth stop that I finally see a hint of them.
We are in Hakodate, at the southern tip of the island of Hokkaido, strolling down Minatogaoka Street in the historic Motomachi district. Not many people are looking to buy from the endless ice cream shops lining the wet cobblestone street on this gray April day.
I am taking a photo of three cartoon squid cast in the iron top of a manhole cover when I look up and there they are, vital and alive, the flesh bright pink against the overcast sky.
