Hanami

So, we now know about 42. However, that is not a thing for everyone.  For example, Japanese avoid this number, because, when pronounced "four-two" (shi ni, 死に), it reminds people of dying.

Instead, Japanese use this time in spring to celebrate the Hanami cherry-blossom season, when Sakura (cherry) trees offer spectacular enhancements of already spectacular views and people gather in parks for picnics with their co-workers and friends

(sadly Hanami for 2020 and 2021 were cancelled - due to the pandemic, not politics)

 

The time of Sakuras blossoming and Hanami  happening changes from year to year and varies in different parts of Japan, but, generally speaking, it moves from the South to the North, starting in Okinawa in late January.

By mid-March, it starts in the southern Kyushu.  In the southern-most tip, Kagoshima, there is an appropriately named active vulcano, Sakurajima (Cherry Blossom Island), which presents beautiful views, especially when framed by those Sakuras in blossom, albeit accented with a continuous discharge of smoke and ash and marked with an occasional eruption.
 

By April, it reaches Sendai, north of Tokyo, with nearby coastline beautifully dotted by numerous pretty little islands (e.g. in Matsushima).

By May, the wave reaches the northern-most island of Hokkaido and then it is over, because there are no more islands to the north.

Note: The Kuril Islands, to the north, which used be Japanese, are Japanese no more.  The ownership was always somewhat shifty, but in 1875 Japan and Russia agreed that Japan will give Russia the big island of Sakhalin and Russia will recognize Japan's ownership of the set of much smaller Kurils.  Well, at the very last minute of WWII, when Japan was on her knees, Russia renounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact that kept them at peace until then, invaded the islands and never gave them back.  Instead, they ethnically cleansed the population (well, "repatriated" to Japan) and took over everything.  Now they have installed there various missile systems, so they really mean to stay.  75 years on, Japanese are still pretty pissed about the whole situation.  When I was there (many years ago), in eastern Hokkaido, where the closest Kuril islands are visible to the naked eye, there were demonstration of agitated people carrying banners about the issue.  Of course, by now, Russians think all this is rightfully theirs, so Russian people now protest, too: against the idea of ever negotiating with Japan and against the perceived danger of handing over this "native Russian land".

Back to those sakuras.

There are widely distributed and publicized calendars and maps that track the line of the day of cherries in the each region come into blossom.  People follow the news and talk about them with the same passion and frequency as Americans talk about baseball (well, I might be exaggerating, but it sounds good, so I keep it...)

All sorts of pretty views are made prettier when those pink flowers help the decor.
 

But what is most special about the time is really the "festival" of Hanami, when everybody streams into parks, alone or in pairs or in groups of friends or coworkers.  They spread out a blanket, have some bento and sake and yap, chat and enjoy...  Poorer folks, like the student crowd, especially in Kyūshū, will drink shōchū instead of sake, because it is stronger, cheaper, and, well, after a while you kinda get used to it.

The sakura trees in the parks are often arranged to have flat, wide crowns to produce a spanning canopy.  My favourite moment was when we climbed, with a couple of friends, on top of one of these trees and sat on the flat top, as if it was a huge carpet of never ending cherry blossoms.  We spend there the whole night, drinking, chatting, cherishing the moment.