The Cherry Blossom Festival

The spring season is celebrated by cherry blossom festivals throughout Japan. Because Japan has such great climactic diversity between north and south, the coming of spring, symbolized by the emerging cherry blossoms, begins in the southernmost Japanese islands and moves all the way through the northern reaches of Hokkaido. Daily weather reports refer to this as the "cherry blossom front" and predict when the peak time for cherry blossoming viewing (ohana-mi) in any given region will be. The "cherry blossom front" can begin as early as February in Okinawa reaching Hokkaido as late as mid May.

There are many wonderful parks and gardens throughout Japan where cherry blossom viewing is enjoyed. In Tokyo, two of the most famous places are the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace, home to the Emperor, and at Ueno Park. Mt. Yoshino near Kyoto and Nara and Hirosaki in the Aomori Prefecture are heralded as being among the most beautiful. Cherry blossom festivals usually consist of families and friends getting together for a picnic lunch under the cherry trees' colorful branches in which a Japanese boxed lunch or obento is enjoyed. Since this is an old tradition dating back to feudal Japan, many women still wear kimonos at these festivals.

Today, there are over 100 varieties of cherry trees in Japan. As a matter of fact, the cherry trees which bloom each April in Washington D.C. were given to the United States by the Japanese government.