Cherry Blossoms


The cherry blossom season has come!

It’s about two weeks earlier than every year. Recently many foreigners come to Japan in order to see cherry blossom trees and they will schedule it according to the time of blossoms, unfortunately, many visitors might fail to see cherry blossom trees this year. If you plan to come to Japan for cherry blossom sightseeing, you should reschedule your itinerary earlier. Meanwhile if you have enough days in your journey, it is no problem.

The season for cherry blossoms in a region is about ten days. However the islands of Japan is so long from southern Okinawa prefecture to northern Hokkaido prefecture that the season of cherry blossoms in Japan has about a two months span. So even if you fail to see cherry blossoms in a city like Osaka City you can recover it in a more northern region. To go to a northern destination in order to chase cherry blossoms is a cool and stylish behavior for many Japanese people, then you will be welcomed by the people of the northern region. A cherry blossom chaser is a drifter with poetic heart since eight centuries ago. At the very least, it is extraordinary how every cherry burst forth at this time of year! 

The reason why many foreigners come to Japan to see cherry blossoms is an amazingly beautiful pink scene filled with cherry blossoms, I suppose. However if you want to see a beautiful scene of cherry blossoms, an excessive video movie can provide it for you. I think that cherry blossoms have another attractive thing, which is the mood of cherry blossoms. Of course people can’t see the mood and can’t feel it consciously, but there is the mood between the beauty and the flavor of cherry blossoms. An energy which lurks in cherry blossom trees during the winter season transforms to the mood which makes people happier, I think. As a result, you should come to Japan to feel the mood of cherry blossoms.

Moreover people who live in an averagely calm climate particularly aren’t able to know what a changeable climate is like in Japan. When cherry blossoms are blooming, a cold spring squall spoils people’s funny mind for cherry blossoms, or when a notorious strong wind engulfs cherry blossoms, people become blank with no idea. For Japanese people the difficulty to enjoy cherry blossoms naturally makes the pleasure of cherry blossoms stronger.

For Japanese people what are cherry blossoms? I asked this question to my wife, “what would you answer if you are asked what icon symbolizes Japan?” 

She answered,”whether Hinomaru, Mount Fuji or cherry blossoms, probably I will answer “cherry blossoms””.

“The second question. If you were a woman of the UK, what would you answer for the icon of the UK except the Union Jack?”

She answered,”The rose is perhaps the icon of England, but I can’t imagine the icon of the UK.”



To tell the truth, I can imagine nothing except the Union Jack too. Of course there are many icons in the world. A pigeon is the icon of peace, and a white lily is the icon of purity. However it is difficult to imagine an icon of a country except the national flag.

For Japanese people Hinomaru is the icon of the country of Japan. On the other hand cherry blossoms are the icon of the heart of Japanese people. There are a ton of poets and songs since ancient time, there are a lot of scenes of cherry blossoms in movies and many Japanese congregate under cherry blossom trees. The upper picture which consist of cherry blossoms and Hinomaru is the mark of “Japan. Tax-free Shop”. For foreign visitors it is an intimate mark to buy some souvenirs. I think probably that it shows the meaning with the Japanese heart, “omotenashi”, in Japan.


Once a year cherry blossoms bloom for a short time and end the blooming time quickly. The breathtaking view of cherry blossom trees in full bloom gives an amazing pleasure to people, on the contrary an appearance of a ton of petals falling from cherry blossom trees in the wind spontaneously gives a gracious good-bye. 

Since ancient time many people have expressed their emotions of their short lives, encounters, farewells, pleasures and griefs, upon cherry blossoms by some poems.

One famous poem is as follows.

“I wish to die

under cherry blossom blooming in the spring

around the day

of the full moon in February”

(The ancient February is about April)



Finally, I will tell you about a light topic.

The upper picture is two Sakura-mochis with green tea. The Sakura-mochi is the bean paste rice cake wrapped in a cherry leaf and it’s so popular. The Japanese cake which includes bean paste is lighter than western cakes including whipped cream and butter. The Sakura-mochi wrapped in a cherry leaf gives off the smell of cherry flavor when we eat it. Its flavor with light sweetness transfers to us a released moment. When you eat a Japanese cake you may feel it is insufficiently sweet, but please continue to eat Japanese cakes. The more you eat the Sakura-mochi, the more you can recognize that the Sakura-mochi is for a released feeling not for the stimulation of sweet feeling. Why do I recommend it? A little bit of the mood of cherry blossoms which are included in the leaf will make you happier.


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