Sakura are the pride of Japan.
People who go to Japan must first think of cherry blossoms before arriving; after arriving, they must first talk about cherry blossoms.
If you arrive between summer and autumn, Japanese friends will say with regret: You missed the cherry blossom season! If you arrive in winter, they will try to persuade you to stay and say: Stay a little longer and wait. Let’s go after seeing the cherry blossoms! In short, the cherry blossoms have become a symbol of Japan, just like Mount Fuji of the Ruixueling Peak.
I have seen cherry blossoms dozens of times.
See it at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo, Ueno Park, Chidorigafuchi; see it in Kyoto, see it in Nara; see it in the rain, see it in the fog, see it under the moon. There are cherry blossoms everywhere in Japan, some of them hundreds. Flower trees are clustered together, and sometimes one or two flower trees are quietly standing alone by the roadside and water.
Spring in Japan is to be immersed in the scent of cherry blossoms!
My Japanese friend told me that there are more than 300 kinds of cherry blossoms in Japan, and the most common ones are mountain cherry blossoms. Yoshino Sakura, and Yae Sakura.
The mountain cherry and Yoshino cherry are not white and red like peach blossoms, nor are they white and green like pear blossoms. They are lotus gray.
The Yae Sakura is plump and rosy, almost like the spring begonias in Beijing.
In addition, there are light yellow tulip cherry blossoms, weeping cherry blossoms with low-hanging branches, Higanzakura blossoms that bloom earliest during the spring equinox, and chrysanthemum cherry blossoms with more than 300 petals overlapping each other, competing for beauty. Gorgeous.
Qing Dynasty poet Huang Zunxian’s cherry blossom song includes:
Mojiang splashes green water in microwaves
Thousands of flowers cover the river
Looking at the beautiful flowers in the city Where are the flowers?
Everyone sings the song of cherry blossoms
The flowers illuminate the sea and the shadows are like waves
The rangers gather to build the Cuiyuansou
Ten days The whole country is crazy
Rejoicing in the morning and evening every year
This song describes the Japanese people's national madness when they watch cherry blossoms in spring.
The ten-day trip was short. After a series of clouds, the spring sun warmed up, and the cherry blossoms bloomed all over the mountains. After a burst of wind and rain, they quickly withered again, and the mountains were covered with cherry blossoms again. Falling flowers! Japanese literati wrote many desolate poems about the short life because of this. It is said that the characteristic of cherry blossoms is also that they bloom early and fall early.
Maybe because I am Chinese, my association with cherry blossoms is not so gloomy.
Although I saw cherry blossoms for the first time in the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo in the spring of 1947, the cemetery was full of gloomy grave-sweepers who occasionally drank too much. The drunken man singing his sad song also gave me a feeling of depression when I walked through the dome-like corridor covered with lily-grey flowers.
When I went to Japan this spring, it was the cherry blossom season. I saw cherry blossoms everywhere, in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, and Kamakura. But on April 13th, I was on Mount Rakashi in Kanazawa. The cherry blossoms we saw were the most brilliant and majestic cherry blossoms I have ever seen!
On April 12, it was raining heavily. Visit the inner beach fishing village.
I accidentally heard on the way that tomorrow is a strike day for taxi company workers in Kanazawa City. There are twelve taxi companies in Kanazawa City, with 250 cars and hundreds of drivers employed. and workers.
They demand an increase in wages due to the oppression of their lives. They have already gone on strike five times, but they have not yet achieved their goal. Tomorrow's strike will be the sixth.
That afternoon, on the beach in heavy rain and at the homes of farmers on the inner bank, we heard many touching stories of workers and peasants who fought hard to oppose the US military’s occupation of farmland as a shooting range and finally won.
In the evening, I participated in another enthusiastic mass welcoming meeting. Everyone was so excited that I couldn’t sleep well. I got up early the next day and hurriedly packed up and set off. I completely forgot about the car drivers’ strike today. It's beyond cloud nine.
At 8:40 in the morning, we came out of the hotel, and eleven cars were neatly lined up at the door.
We got in the car separately and slowly walked along the mountain road, twisting and turning down.
The weather was sunny, the warm east wind was blowing, and the bright sunshine was dazzling our eyes.
At this time, I suddenly remembered, isn’t today the day when the car drivers are on strike? They are on strike. Doesn't the time start at eight o'clock in the morning? In order to send us to the bus, didn't it delay their strike time? I quickly asked the Japanese friend who was sitting with the driver in front to ask what happened.
The Japanese friend turned around and smiled slightly and said: In order to send the delegation of Chinese writers to the station, they held an emergency meeting last night and decided to change the strike time to start at nine in the morning! I was just When he was excited to say a word or two of thanks, the driver, who was careful and steady, looking ahead, tilted his head slightly and said humbly: Promoting the friendship between the Japanese and Chinese people is also part of the struggle!
My heart jumped suddenly, and like fireworks, sparks of gratitude spewed out from the depths of my heart.
There were no other vehicles on the mountain road in the early morning. There were only eleven cars like us, speeding along the rustling ground.
At this moment, I suddenly saw that on both sides of the mountain road, there were hundreds and thousands of cherry blossoms blooming after the rain! These cherry blossoms were piled up in layers, like a sea of ??clouds. Under the morning sun, the vast expanse is crimson and filled with brilliant colors.
When the winding mountain road is covered by the boundless flower clouds, we are like sitting in eleven canoes connected end to end, riding the swaying east wind, with splashing noise on both sides. The roaring waves of flowers are moving quickly towards the rising sun!
After going down the mountain and reaching the city center, I still saw no other vehicles on the street, only many cars on the street. Inside, the door was open, with cars of all sizes lined up inside the door. A large red flag was hung at the door. The car workers stood neatly by the door, smiling and watching our group of vehicles pass by.
When we arrived at the station, we got off the bus and held the drivers' hands tightly with enthusiasm, thanking them for helping us and wishing them victory in their struggle.
The warm farewell scene has passed, the train has been driving for a long time, and the rolling snow mountains and rushing spring water are passing by in front of the window, but my eyes are still shining with this strange land that I have never seen before. Beautiful cherry blossoms!
I turned around and asked my Japanese friend who was traveling with me: It goes without saying that cherry blossoms are beautiful, but from the Japanese point of view, what is the beauty of cherry blossoms? He scratched his head and smiled He said: There are no beautiful flowers in the world. As for the love for a certain kind of flower, it is because of the feelings in everyone's heart.
Japanese literati felt the brevity of life from the beautiful and easy-to-fall cherry blossoms, and the samurai thought of the heroism of sacrifice.
As for ordinary people, they like cherry blossoms because they are the first to bring news of excitement and joy to the people after the miserable winter.
In Japan, there are so many cherry blossoms! They are everywhere on the mountains, by the water, on the streets, in the courtyards.
The snow has not yet melted, the winter clothes have not yet been put on, and the spring cold is still chilly in the dark room. As long as a distant east wind blows and the sun shines in the sky, the cherry blossoms will bloom all over the mountains. !Whether it is mountain cherry, Yoshino cherry, or Yae cherry, it reports the exciting news of spring to the people on the three islands of Japan next to it.
These words made two things clear to me.
One is: Sakura blooms all over the three islands of Penglai. It is the Japanese people’s own flower. It will always give the Japanese people the excitement and encouragement of spring; A special favorite of certain flowers.
The cherry blossoms in Kanazawa are not more beautiful than those elsewhere.
The car driver’s deeply touching words, expressing the deep friendship of the Japanese working people towards the Chinese people, made the cherry blossoms all over the mountains of Kanazawa in my eyes turn into a flower of friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people. The sea of ??clouds makes the boat of friendship move forward like an arrow towards the bright morning sun!
Reminiscing at night brings warmth to my heart, and I gladly pick up the pen to praise the cherry blossoms.