Party people's passions flare as cherry blossom season arrives
from mainichi daily news
Cherry blossom viewing time is a ritual dating back centuries in Japan, but when the caps on the booze loosen under the pretty pink flowers, so do morals, according to Shukan Post (4/7).
It's a tradition for Japanese to gather under the cherry blossoms and sing, dance and otherwise make merry.
What may once have been perfectly acceptable behavior, however, can now be construed as troublesome sexual harassment, as the group of 10 men and women from one prominent, but unnamed, trading company found out.
"Once things got going, somebody suggested we play some party games. Naturally, there were penalties for the losers. At first, the penalty was just chugging down a drink, but as things heated up, somebody yelled out, 'Make the losers get their gear off.' For some reason, the women went along with it. It didn't take long before someone was screaming for one of the women to take her undies off, and she duly complied, albeit while continuing to wear her dress," a 30-something man who attended the flower-viewing shindig tells Shukan Post. "Next, the woman without her skivs was made to do a lap of the park where we were drinking. Then, they got her to give us a flash for a 'commemorative photo.' Everybody was in real party mode."
Unfortunately for the raunchy revelers, other members of their company were enjoying the sights nearby and reported their behavior. All were disciplined for disgracing their company's name.
Other sozzled fans of o-hanami, the Japanese name for flower viewing, perhaps courteously kept the disgrace to themselves. Like the boozy brawlers in Tokyo.
"We were drinking up on the steep banks of the Imperial Palace moat when this guy started fighting with one of his underlings," a man working for a printing company tells Shukan Post. "The fight got so heated, the pair toppled down the side of the moat and into the water below."
Fighting, it must be noted, is more of a rarity at flower-viewing parties than the norm. But plenty goes on that would rightly inspire fisticuffs, as the two young lovers from a staid, tradition-bound firm would probably attest.
"Our company maintains a strict ban on workplace fraternization between the sexes. One day, the boss suddenly upped and offered to take us all out flower-viewing. We'd all taken a toast when the boss said, 'Now I'll show you the real reason for why I brought you all here today,' and pointed off toward a secluded corner of the park. When I took a really good look, I realized the boss was pointing at one of my co-workers, who was having his own private hanami with one of the girls from the office. The boss turned back to us and said: 'That pair have broken company rules and I wanted you lot to be here to witness it all,'" a retail company worker tells Shukan Post. "The boss was really pleased with himself and got stuck right into the booze. He eventually went over and caught the young lovers 'red-handed.' The girl was eventually transferred off to the boondocks and the relationship was over." (By Ryann Connell)
