Japanese Hanami Picnic / Party
Hanami (flower viewing) is a beautiful Japanese tradition of picnicking under the cherry blossoms in Spring.
The Japanese certainly know how to do picnics! With all sorts of colourful food and plenty of Sake to drink! Its not unusual to see barbecues, karaoke machines and boom boxes and even night time picnics in parks strung with lanterns.
Hanami makes a lovely and very versatile theme for a Spring party. Whether you want to take a simple picnic to the park, have a Hanami garden party or barbecue at home, or take it in doors if the weather isn’t so good, it makes for a colourful setting and some fun cooking and preparation! And don’t worry about where to buy stuff, we’ve found everything you could possibly need from bento boxes to barbecues and sushi sets to sake (although its easy to do your own version simply on a budget if you prefer).
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Hanami Essentials |
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 Food & Drink
The Japanese pack their picnic food in bento boxes – lunchboxes with compartments for different types of food. The food for Hanami should be colourful, especially pink, white and green to reflect the colours of the blossom laden trees. Here are some of our Japanese recipes to get you started.
Yakitori Chicken (wonderful done on the barbecue, but just as great cold), Salmon Teryaki, Sushi Maki (you could get adventurous and try the cherry blossom version wrapped in salmon and made into a flower!), Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omlette) – a bento box staple, Hanami Salad – a pretty cherry blossom inspired rice noodle salad, Dango rice dumplings (traditionally pink, white and green for Hanami) – a bit of an aquired taste so you could use pink and white marshmallows threaded on a bamboo skewer instead, Sekihan Rice. Drink Sake! (preferably served warm).
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 Decoration
If you hanami in the park, you’ll have the real cherry blossom to sit under. If you decide to hanami at home (outside or in) you can decorate with paper lanterns and sprigs of cherry blossom.
 Have a go at folding some of these lovely cherry blossom napkins. They need a weight in the middle to keep them in place – a few little yellow sweets are good.
More Hanami ideas on Flickr.
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 Eating Japanese style
In Japan, food is often eaten off low tables and cushions on the floor, rather than Western style chairs and tables. If you are having a hanami party at home and have a low table this might be nice to try.
You can’t have a Japanese party without chopsticks! There are quite a few rules surrounding the use of chopsticks, the main ones being; don’t spear your food with them or leave them sticking up in a bowl of rice, don’t point with them or wave them around in the air.
You say “itadakimasu” (“I gratefully receive”) before eating, and “gochisosama (deshita)” (“Thank you for the meal”) afterwards.
When drinking alcohol, it is customary to serve each other, rather than pouring your own drink so keep an eye on your friend’s glasses!
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Further information & useful links |
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