Are You Ready? Sakura(Cherry Blossoms) Viewing Season Is Coming Soon!!

Cherry blossoms are going to bloom soon in Tokyo area!

Japanese people are checking and reporting it from really early stage like the photo on the left, and people keep talking “now it’s 10% blooming”, “now it’s 30% blooming”…until fully bloomed or even past bloomed.

It’s not only for a small talk, Japanese weather forecasts are officially reporting and forecasting the Sakura blooming every year as in the two photos on the right.

As you can see on upper right hand side photo, Japanese islands extend vertically and cherry blossoms start to bloom from the south to the north gradually (it takes time and people can even travel with it), so people call it “The Cherry Blossom Front” as if it is one of the weather phenomena.

According to the “Sakura Forecast” by Japan Weather Association as shown on the lower right hand side photo, Sakura flowers will start to bloom on March 21st, and it will come into full bloom in Tokyo area on March 28th this year.

Are you ready for "Hanami (Flowers Viewing)" for Sakura Flowers?

A Photo of A View Of Sunset With Sakura-color in April

It was a misty day yesterday, and somehow the sunset became Sakura(cherry blossoms)-color as if the cloud is reflecting the full blooming Sakura flowers on the ground.

I didn not make up the word "Sakura-color" , Japanese use the word “Sakura-Iro(Sakura color)” when they want to express delicate light pink color. 

On the other hand, the direct translation of pink color in Japanese is “Peach color(Momo-Iro)” because peach flowers have stronger pink.

However, nowadays people use the English-Japanese conbination “Pink-Iro(pink color)” more commonly. People still use “Sakura-Iro” but seldom use “Momo-Iro”, and “Pink-Iro” became a Japanese word.

Photos of Comparison Between A View With Spring Haze And A View During Winter

Today, I saw “spring haze” phenomenon which I introduced on March 4th. Both pictures show the same location from the same angle, and weather is clear on each picture.

Spring haze is not a result of any pollution, it is just a phenomenon of increasing water vapor in the air. During the winter the air tends to be very dry, but the spring brings higher humidity as the temperature goes up. These climate changes cause a hazy view, a common phenomenon in every spring.

Therefore the expression “Spring Haze (Haru Gasumi in Japanese)” has been one of the common seasonal expression in Japan and it is often used in traditional Japanese short poetry(Haiku and Tanka) since the expression can bring graceful spring atmosphere into the poetry.