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I have done viewing parties with my friends where we have gotten extremely drunk (at Takada park where the header image is from, coincidentally), and have also

I have done viewing parties with my friends where we have gotten extremely drunk (at Takada park where the header image is from, coincidentally), and have also done trips with my family and family friends where no alcohol was consumed. All were wonderful - although sometimes the crowds are a bit bigger than I would like.

toyg 5y ago
> sometimes the crowds are a bit bigger than I would like I think that's really metropolitan Japan in a nutshell, lol.
- freetime2 5y ago
  True, but I was actually referring to the countryside! I live near a large-ish park that is very peaceful and quiet all year, but when the cherry blossoms bloom it gets so crowded that it’s almost unrecognizable. Metropolitan Japan is indeed on another level, though. I once visited Ueno Park while the cherry blossoms were in bloom and it was just a sea of people. This was pre-covid, and I still found it a bit gross. Still had a great time that day, though!
  - lars512 5y ago
    On the flip side, when I first saw Ueno park I thought it was incredibly ugly and barren. Then when the cherry blossoms came it was completely transformed overnight. I didn’t stay through until Summer to see the full season, but the park definitely wasn’t worse with the cherry blossoms, despite the people.
- MomoXenosaga 5y ago
  What makes it extra annoying is that Japan is a collective culture which means that everyone is doing the same thing at the same time. But maybe it's also a human thing. My own country has a long coastline yet everyone seems to single out one single beach where everyone congregates.
  - toyg 5y ago
    Most people don't do things because they like them, but because they enable their relationships with other humans - so they can talk about something with them, compare their experiences, etc etc. This really is the conceptual basis for mass-culture; in Japan they've just accepted it a bit more openly than elsewhere.
  - jonpurdy 5y ago
    This is like beach season in South Korea. June 30th, Haeundae is deserted and has a few people looking around. July 1st hits and it is completely packed until Aug 31. Then Sept 1 hits and it is deserted again.

toyg 5y ago

> sometimes the crowds are a bit bigger than I would like I think that's really metropolitan Japan in a nutshell, lol.

freetime2 5y ago
True, but I was actually referring to the countryside! I live near a large-ish park that is very peaceful and quiet all year, but when the cherry blossoms bloom it gets so crowded that it’s almost unrecognizable. Metropolitan Japan is indeed on another level, though. I once visited Ueno Park while the cherry blossoms were in bloom and it was just a sea of people. This was pre-covid, and I still found it a bit gross. Still had a great time that day, though!
- lars512 5y ago
  On the flip side, when I first saw Ueno park I thought it was incredibly ugly and barren. Then when the cherry blossoms came it was completely transformed overnight. I didn’t stay through until Summer to see the full season, but the park definitely wasn’t worse with the cherry blossoms, despite the people.
MomoXenosaga 5y ago
What makes it extra annoying is that Japan is a collective culture which means that everyone is doing the same thing at the same time. But maybe it's also a human thing. My own country has a long coastline yet everyone seems to single out one single beach where everyone congregates.
- toyg 5y ago
  Most people don't do things because they like them, but because they enable their relationships with other humans - so they can talk about something with them, compare their experiences, etc etc. This really is the conceptual basis for mass-culture; in Japan they've just accepted it a bit more openly than elsewhere.
- jonpurdy 5y ago
  This is like beach season in South Korea. June 30th, Haeundae is deserted and has a few people looking around. July 1st hits and it is completely packed until Aug 31. Then Sept 1 hits and it is deserted again.