🍡🍡 Hanami dango amidst sakura blooms in Arashiyama, Kyoto. There are Sakura everywhere in Japan right now! 🌸🌸 I have always wanted to eat Hanami Dango myself and finally got the chance to do so yesterday. This rice cake snack is so important to japanese culture that there is even an emoji for it ->🍡 It's sakura season right now in Japan, which marks the beginning of Spring. Since sakura season only lasts about a month (usually April), it became an important tradition to go to the nearest park with picnic mats and some packed food for sakura viewing - also known as Hanami. Hanami 花見 means "watching flowers" (hana 花 = flowers; mi 見 = eyes / to watch) and Dango means "dumplings / rice cake". Japanese eats dango as snack all-year round, but this variation with pink, white and green is traditionally eaten during Hanami season. The pink color comes from azuki (red bean) and the green is from green tea 🍵! 🍃🌸🌸🍡🌸🌸🍃 #RealLifeEmoji #EmojiIRL #EmojisInTheWild #ShotOniPhone6s

A post shared by ❤️ Mel's Food & Travel log (@girleatworld) on Apr 8, 2016 at 7:01pm PDT