Americans can't Understand

You might think that the examples I mention in this blog are one-offs taken from the occasional nutcase. While that might be true sometimes, I'd say that on the whole, really, 80-90% of the stuff here was chosen because it exemplified a typical pattern of thought I've noticed. Usually I've chosen a given example because it sums up the concept nicely or maybe just because it happened that day and was fresh in my memory so I posted it before it faded. I probably had the discussion that day, then thought "Yeah, this comes up a lot, I should put it on the blog." So I really feel that the items I post here don't just represent some fringe element that was quotable.

Anyway...

We've had some weird weather here. It's been unusually warm and wet. The end of January was more like early April, early spring. I made a joke in class the other day and said, "Wow, we'll have to have hanami (cherry blossom viewing) soon."

Cherry blossom viewing is a fun Japanese custom where people have a picnic in the park near blooming cherry trees and get drunk. That's about it. I love hanami, it's great fun, but there's really not a lot more to it. A lot of people joke that they never even saw the trees that year, they were too busy eating and drinking. Hell my first o-hanami involved a portable karaoke machine trucked out to the park with a portable generator.

So a guy in my class said "Hmm, I think you Americans can't understand the true meaning of hanami."
So I said "You mean that the cherry petals are beautiful for a few days and then fall down, and that life is sweet but short?"
"Hmm. Do you understand that? I think American people can't understand that."
"No, I get it. It's not really that hard to figure out."
"Well, I think most Americans can't even see a cherry tree, so they can't understand."
"Actually about 20 minutes by car from my home in America is a big park (Branch Brook park, NJ) with a few thousand Asian cherry trees. And in other parts of America there are north American cherry trees too, but I admit, not so many trees like Japanese ones. And we don't really have the same custom of o-hanami like Japan does, so that part's different, sure."
"Yeah, we gave you those trees in that park."
"No we bought them from botanical gardens in Asia and raised the rest. You're thinking of the ones in Washington DC."

(Japan's cherry trees, like rice, Buddhism, the layout of the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, the abacus, green tea and the writing system were imported from China and modified.)

"Bought? Bought? How did you buy? We didn't sell you trees!"
"Look, the bank a few blocks from here has marble from Vermont. It wasn't a gift. You bought it. After the big typhoon the trees in the park near here were killed, the city bought new ones. It's common."
"Yeah, but I don't think Americans can understand our feeling."

(I just would like to add that this guy is a middle aged bachelor who sells kitchen parts and says gross things to the young women in the class and isn't a haiku poet. But the fact that he was born in Tokyo, a city renowned for it's greenery, makes him especially sensitive to the bittersweet symphony called Life.)

"Maybe, maybe not, but I get it. It's not really that hard to understand. I think when some Americans see some flowers that have died, or leaves in the autumn that fall down they have a similar feeling. I think a lot of people from many countries have the same feeling. There are many songs and poems about it."
"Hmm, maybe in autumn, sure, but no way can you understand about cherry blossoms. Only Japanese. Like a samurai."