Hello,
Cherry trees blossom all over the world in Spring. But in Japan, it is very special.
Japanese winters are traditionally dry with blue skies and bright white light. It’s cheerful and sunny, but there’s not a lot of green in the modern concrete cities.
So there’s a national obsession with watching for the first signs of the cherry blossom and Spring. On national news, a map of the country will appear, with predictions of when the pinkness will begin, and the cherry blossom front is portrayed as a weather front, rising up from the South of the country.
Many a haiku (17 syllable poem) focuses on the blossoms, or the anticipation of them:
A spring breeze is blowing
I’m bursting with laughter
- Wishing for flowers (Matsuo Basho, from Haiku blog)
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