Tokyo’s Dazzling Cherry Blossom Season Officially Begins

Tokyo : As Tokyo meteorologists declared the start of the beloved cherry blossom season in Japan’s capital on Thursday, residents are preparing to host outdoor picnics under dazzling floral displays.

Cherry season for Tokyo begins when the official specimen tree at Yasukuni Shrine has at least five blooms.

“Today, Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms were observed blooming,” the Tokyo Regional Headquarters of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said in a highly anticipated statement, referring to the most common cherry variety. he said.

Since early Thursday morning, local broadcasters have repeatedly shown dozens of open flowers on the tree.

To make it official, a suit-clad official from the weather agency stood before an audience of dozens and theatrically counted and pointed at the open flowers.

They then carefully walked around the tree in front of national media and audiences, examining it more closely and consulting among themselves.

A few minutes later, one of them said he found 61 open flowers.

“Tokyo’s cherry trees are in bloom,” he told the crowd, drawing applause.

JMA said bloom was on average five days earlier than last year’s arrival date of March 24.

The early bloom comes as Tokyo has been experiencing warmer-than-normal weather since mid-February, a weather agency official told AFP.

The earliest date cherry blossoms bloomed in Tokyo was March 14, which occurred three times in 2020, 2021 and 2023, JMA said.

Taira Toru, a 30-year-old public official and a spectator at Yasukuni Shrine, said the start of cherry season gives hope in wartime.

“This is something that happens every year, but right now because of the situation in Iran… the world is in turmoil, and I really hope that with the arrival of spring, peace will come again.”