Cherry blossom season has come a bit earlier than usual this year. This weekend was the last chance to see full of flowers and to enjoy outdoor parties among family & friends under the trees in Tokyo.

Cherry blossom is the center of heart for Japanese

As l wrote before in my blog, l haven’t met any Japanese people who don’t like cherry blossoms and basically Japanese are really enthusiastic to see the blooms although most of us are not so interested in any other flowers somehow. It is as if every Japanese has already been set a program of “enthusiasm to cherry blossoms” in our gene. Not to mention, the famous places with tons of cherry trees such as Ueno Park, Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens, and Meguro River in Tokyo had a tremendous number of visitors, even the park in front of my office building, there are so many groups of people to have lunch under the trees and to take so many photos in this season although I seldom see any people there in normal time. It is a somewhat strange sight, isn’t it? Why on earth are we so fascinated by the cherry blossoms??

Definitely, cherry blossoms are a sign of spring coming. Besides, the hundreds of cherry blossoms start to bloom all at once, however, their lifespans are very short compared with other flowers and all blossoms will be gone a week or 10 days later at most. We can say that their way of blooming and disappearing is very graceful, so that we may be deprived of our heart by their “fragility of life”.

How we can predict the timing of the flower blooming?

By the way, do you know how cherry trees predict an exact timing to have flowers? Although it is just an information from weather forecasts, cherry trees start to bloom when the total temperature since February 1st is over 600℃. Full blooming was around March 20th in Tokyo, which was much faster than usual, because temperatures in March, Japan as a whole, were relatively higher and total temperature reached 600℃ before coming April.

I heard that the most numbers of foreign visitors come to Japan to see cherry blossoms in April in the year. Unfortunately, “Somei Yoshino”, major species of cherry blossoms, have already finished, but please don’t be so disappointed for missing a chance. We have different kinds of cherry trees such as “Yaezakura” other than Somei Yoshino in Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens, Hamarikyu Gardens and some other places.

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Lastly, I have enjoyed a picnic of cherry blossoms viewing in the park and to take a walk along the river near my resident with my husband on weekends. (Oh, I forgot to bring Ohagi and Sakura-mochi this time…) It is also nice to visit famous cherry blossom viewing spots, however, it is too many people to enjoy the viewing with relaxing time…I prefer to enjoy them in my neighborhood in recent years. At least, fewer people and more comfortable!