In Japan, spring is the beginning of the new fiscal year. First the plum trees blossom. Then people get assigned to their new jobs and have to move all over the place. Finally the cherry blossoms arrive and people can sit down to a good party.

Plum blossoms are darker than cherry blossoms, but just as beautiful. Put in the northwest corner of a yard, they also ward off evil spirits. At least I think it’s the northwest corner.

No amount of plum blossoms will ward off your travelling papers, though. This year, one of the women I work with got moved to a new job two hours in the other direction. She had about a week to make the move. Luckily, she lives in the middle of both jobs so her commute stays the same. Other people aren't so lucky. I remember last year, a guy I worked with got placed in Ashizuri, three hours from his home and family. He got a new apartment for the week and was able to visit his family on weekends.

Before, I had a hard time understanding all this movement. I asked people if they were pleased or upset to be changing jobs. They said it didn't matter, that they had to fulfill their duty. I'm reading Donald Richie's The Inland Sea, which talks a bit about Japanese devotion. "I cannot approve of it," he writes, "and I certainly do not like it. It is actually a kind of laziness. You let someone else -- country, flag, government -- make up your mind. You also, of course, make them responsible. Perhaps this is the true attraction of devotion. If you can make someone else responsible, then you don't have to be responsible for yourself. Nothing -- including your own life -- is your own fault." That may be a bit harsh, but it does help to explain the dominant attitude that almost everything -- earthquakes, typhoons, a monster of a boss who makes you work 70 hours a week -- can't be helped, must be dutifully endured.

Ceremonies, for example, are a matter of serious endurance. Yesterday was the first grader's first day of junior high school. Parents crowded the school gym to see their son's or daughter's name announced. Pictures were taken and smiles were beamed. There was a speech about war and peace and the need to study hard. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best. The school brass band beeped and booped as the new recruits filed out of the gym and into school. I did my best just to stay awake.

Today, the last Friday of spring, people seem to be settling into the new year. The photocopier has been cleaned and new ties have been purchased. People are typing and phoning like rabbits because in three hours its hanami!

Cherry blossom viewing originated in the days before time, back when the seeding god, or the harvest god, or some kind of god, resided in the cherry tree. Naturally, people offered food and drink to the cherry tree god when it awoke in spring. But of course the gods had no use for food and drink, and good farmers of the land, being practical people, had a party there under the cherry tree. Then, as now, a good time is a good time.