Went to Little Tokyo in downtown LA for their annual Cherry Blossom festival. It was fun, in a way, but I always kind of weird at these kinds of events in LA. They're out of place, and somehow they feel amiss and off-kilter.
I think it's that the cherry blossoms are supposed to signify the coming of spring. But this is LA. We don't even have perceptible seasons, much less the kind of glorious transition that heralds spring in Japan. Some Japanese believe, half-seriously, that Japan is the only place in the world with four seasons. It's not true -- that would be silly -- but someone coming from Japan to LA could be excused for thinking so. By the time the festival rolls around, it's already LA-style summer, and the blossoms have come and gone.
I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm generally in favor of cultural traditions on the one hand, but on the other I think that things should flow naturally and logically as inevitable consequences of the environment. These things are always difficult.
words from chris, 2010-04-14 21:54:39, los angeles
