The cherry blossoms are not showing yet where I am located. Some early plum, wild pear, and peach blossoms are beginning. My flowering quince, usually the earliest to bloom, is lagging. The buds are nice and fat and look ready to pop…The Japanese plum buds are much larger and a petal here and there can be seen. This cherry blossom forecast is for Japan. I am a little late posting it due to various life events, pneumonia, etc. The slide show is from photos from the past couple of years. I used to work in an office park where there were sixty-five cherry trees – my own private festival! Also, there are some short videos of my favorite guys, World Older. JATA – Japanese Association of Travel Agents – produced these videos showing parts of Japan. The music is hypnotic and the guys are showing more of their surroundings rather than the videos being about their choreography.
While there are all kinds of festivals and fun events going on, the time of cherry blossoms is always a solemn time for me. Even though I am excited to see their beauty after a long cold snowy winter, I still feel ..mono no aware…物の哀れ – the pathos of things; impermanence – 無常, mujō. These are feelings of a gentle sadness, wistfulness. The Samurai were also associated with sakura as their lives were so transient.
I hope you enjoy this mini-trip to Japan!
Updated February 19th, 2015 as Sakura Map has updated their cherry blossom forecast for 2015 sakura season. Just a reminder that these dates are the estimated opening date for cherry blossoms and full bloom should be around a week or so after.
Fukuoka | March 22
Matsuyama | March 25
Hiroshima | March 27
Miyajima | March 27
Kyoto | March 28
Osaka | March 27
Nara | March 29
Nagoya | March 25
Tokyo | March 26
Yokohama | March 26
Kanazawa | April 4
Sendai | April 10
kanzen sakura 
Mar 30, 2015 @ 12:07:54
Wow, so beautiful. Happy Spring to you my friend.
Mar 30, 2015 @ 12:19:07
Happy spring to you! I hope this year is not so dry for you all.
Mar 30, 2015 @ 12:33:10
Wow now those are indeed beautiful…
Mar 30, 2015 @ 14:52:13
Thank you! I love their beauty.
Mar 30, 2015 @ 14:57:43
Thank you! I can hardly wait for them to open this year and take more pics.
Mar 30, 2015 @ 13:30:06
Thank you for the slide show, Kanzen. The blossoms cheered me up just now. Blossoms always promise new beginnings and we make new plans. ❤
Love these guys. They're hypnotic and it hard to stop watching. 🙂
Mar 30, 2015 @ 14:51:38
Even though these videos were more about “life”, their movements are still mesmerizing. My favorite on in the group I call “Dimples”. Between the music and their choreography, the two videos are actually soothing. I couldn’t get the Vol. 1 to post….but you can go on YouTube and find it.
Mar 30, 2015 @ 18:59:31
Thank you, Kanzen, for you time and trouble. 😀 ❤
Mar 30, 2015 @ 19:11:42
You are most welcome!
Mar 30, 2015 @ 19:12:21
❤ ❤ ❤
Mar 30, 2015 @ 19:18:48
💗 💗 💗
Mar 30, 2015 @ 14:52:39
Beautiful! Did you see my post yesterday…we are on the same page my dear. All the best and live life in FULL bloom!!!
Mar 30, 2015 @ 14:57:12
I am just now starting to catch up with posts in my reader! How wonderful it is when people get together in their hearts to post beautiful things.
Mar 30, 2015 @ 15:06:38
Agreed!
Mar 30, 2015 @ 17:08:48
Love those sakuras. Ours were drench already from a week long rain however the plants are flowering at different times. We also have a Sakura Poetry Contest and here’s a winning one last year in Vancouver:
subway platform
she brushes cherry petals
from her black umbrella
Garry Eaton
Port Moody, British Columbia
Cheers.
Mar 30, 2015 @ 17:17:47
💗 Thank you for sharing that beautiful poem with me. It is a wonderful visual and story all in one. Thank you!!!! 😸
Mar 30, 2015 @ 19:59:42
Exquisite!
Mar 30, 2015 @ 21:45:38
🙂 thank you!
Mar 31, 2015 @ 05:41:24
Gorgeous!
Mar 31, 2015 @ 16:29:36
Glad you’re feeling better; really enjoyed the photos & vids. Thanks 4 the nice visit U had over at my site where dark humor reigned today
Mar 31, 2015 @ 17:03:18
Dark humor is always enjoyed by me. I am glad you enjoyed the vids. I love those guys when they are doing their real choreography. It made me homesick a bit though. odd to be homesick of a place that isn’t one’s home, so to speak but that is how it goes. I always enjoy visiting your place!
Mar 31, 2015 @ 19:23:54
Explain, if you will, the difference between the two videos, Kanzen …?
Mar 31, 2015 @ 20:13:46
There are some different places visited. Vol. 1 was quite a bit more different but I couldn’t get the danged thing to post. Vol. 2 they visit an onsen (natural mineral hot spring and very common), visit a geisha house, visit the Kanazawa palace gardens, a kura (store house) where they are having gold leaf cut into decorative shapes, cross the Ayatori-bashi bridge, the 21st Century museum of contemporary art, the second video you see the beach driveway, rice fields overlooking the ocean at the end, Kenrokuen gardens, walk through a different district, cross the Koorogi-bashi bridge in the rain (both bridges are very old and in older traditional neighborhoods) they visit some shrines in both vids, they visit the Lantern Museum…similar but different. Showing different areas of Japan and things not usually seen in tourist films. Watch them again and you will spot the differences. the music is the same because JATA produced them and wanted them to air in several different TV commercials, mainly because of the Olympics in 2020. Onsens are pretty uniform in style and services offered but are not co-ed. They are wonderful. Hot natural mineral springs (lotsa volcanoes there). Many homes have small onsen. Usually about 4 feet deep with a bench in the water to sit on and relax.
Mar 31, 2015 @ 20:35:27
Jesus. You never hold back when asked questions !
THANK-YOU !!!
Mar 31, 2015 @ 20:44:36
Well my dear, I figured you really wanted to know and wasn’t being a smart ass. So, and because you are dear and because I love Japan so, I wanted you to see the wonders that speak to me.
Mar 31, 2015 @ 23:17:50
And it is obvious that they do ! I suppose I might do the same for … oh, the many little towns in France or Italy to which our hearts leaped from our bodies …
Mar 31, 2015 @ 19:56:38
The forecast for us here is early May, so it will be some time before I see those pink blooms ~ We normally go to the park with cherry blooms donated by the Japanese but its not a whole lot of trees but enough for us folks to go gaga over with many pictures ~
Mar 31, 2015 @ 19:58:50
Enough to go gaga over and take some pictures is plenty! Five or five hundred, they are beautiful and cheering.