Within the last ten years, communication with family and friends who live far away has become much easier and much cheaper due to the advancements in technology.  It seems all an American expat needs is a passport, a credit card/cash, a Skype account and a Facebook account.  With technologies like these, one might even feel as though they aren’t even living overseas!  I can check American news, interact with my friends on Facebook and chat with my family on Skype.  It seems like the world has become one in a blink of an eye… that is until you walk outside.

Japan’s beautiful cherry blossom season is just now coming to a close and for Japanese people, and now myself, nothing represents Winter ending like those lovely flowers.  Now I know it’s Spring.  With an average lifespan of less than one week, these flowers represent an old cultural aesthetic, mono no aware or the transience of things.  In Japan, with the changing of seasons comes the disappearance of some things and the arrival of others (aka seasonal food – although it may not completely disappear it often becomes prohibitively expensive).  Cherry blossoms are no different.  Japanese people celebrate them with gusto, eating and drinking under the trees.  When they are in full bloom, people are overjoyed but it too is short lived.  For soon the leaves will fall and one can not help but consider ones’ own life span and how it too will pass, just like the flowers.

However, no matter how much technology advances this cultural aspect of Japan will not change.  So let’s all close our computers and go outside for a walk.