Hanami, or viewing of flowers, is one of Japan’s age-old traditions, in which people gather to view flowers, most famously cherry blossoms, and party under the trees in parks during spring time.

Weather News, a private weather information company, has conducted a nation-wide survey on people’s attitudes towards hanami and how they prepare for the event.

The results of the survey found that people in Okinawa mostly ignored hanami, while residents in Aomori Prefecture were spending most money on the accompanying party. For a question, “How many times you intend to go to Hanami,” the average was 1.4 times. But for Okinawa, the answer was 0.8 times, which is the lowest in the nation.

The results showed that the budget and time spent for Hanami were the lowest in Okinawa. Some people said, “In Okinawa, we have no custom to have a party under cherry trees, but we just look at them.”

According to the survey, people in Aomori Prefecture are the ones taking their hanami most seriously spending an average of ¥3,167 for the party. It’s clearly more than No.2 Iwate Prefecture’s ¥2,919. Aomori ranked in the top 5 for most of the questions, including the time to enjoy Hanami, in which Aomori was ranked No. 3 with 2.3 hours.

The national average time to enjoy Hanami was 2.0 hours, while people in Okinawa Prefecture watch their pink Taiwan cherry blossoms 1.3 hours on average, the second shortest time next to Toyama.

The survey was done on a website, It offered people several alternative answers ro choose from. 9,700 people answered to the survey.

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