How long hanami

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From late March to early April, Tokyo transforms as cherry blossom fever grips the city. This year, warmer weather looks set to bring the dates forward, with flowering set to begin earlier than usual. We introduce the latest forecast and the best spots to enjoy these beautiful symbols of spring.

Cherry blossom — or sakura - season in Tokyo is truly a magical experience. Thousands of trees burst into bloom, dousing the streets with stunning shades of pink. The flowers are a national obsession and people flock to parks to hold hanami parties and picnics to view and photograph them. Stores will stock their shelves with sakura-themed or flavored items, such as sakura bento lunch boxes and even serve pink sakura drinks. As if shaking off the winter, a bright and optimistic atmosphere fills the city.

At the beginning of each year, the cherry blossom forecast is eagerly awaited. Broadcast on national television, viewers will anticipate when best to hold their hanami flower viewing parties. The cherry blossom season in Tokyo is forecast to begin on March It normally takes about one week to 10 days from flowering to full bloom. Tokyo is full of well-known as well as hidden spots for viewing blossoms.

However, for the full hanami experience, soak up the vibrant atmosphere of a festival. The hip yet laid-back neighborhood of Nakameguro is full of trendy coffee shops and cafes. Yet in spring its quiet canal becomes more like a carnival as lanterns line the avenues and food stalls set up shop, selling drinks and snacks to the crowds thronging the streets.

The draw is some trees lining a 3. Note: This festival will not take place in Full bloom mankai is usually reached within about one week after the opening of the first blossoms kaika. Another week later, the blooming peak is over and the blossoms are falling from the trees. Strong wind and rain can cut the blooming season even shorter. Every year, weather services and the media, including japan-guide.

Note that the front generally indicates the opening of the first blossoms kaika rather than the arrival of full bloom mankai. Of course, not every tree in a city opens on the same day, as trees in shadowy places, for example, can bloom several days later than trees in sunny places.

For this reason, a representative sample tree is selected to define the date of kaika the opening of the first blossoms for a whole city. In Tokyo, the sample tree is located at Yasukuni Shrine. The table below lists the average dates on which cherry trees open their first blossoms and reach full bloom for selected cities. Remember that the timings can vary a lot from year to year. Ask in our forum.

In Tokyo, the index tree is in Yasukuni Shrine. Cherry blossoms are declared to be blooming in the capital when five or more buds on this tree have blossomed. There is a window of just less than two weeks from the start of blossoming until the flowers fall apart.

A example of sakura forecast map, delivered by weather map. Many Somei-yoshino trees were planted after the Second World War, meaning they are now elderly. There is concern that they may die off. Cherry trees are not very hardy, according to the Cherry Blossom Association. They do badly in dry conditions and, because their roots are not deep, they can be damaged by being stepped on or by the ground being hardened, such as by traffic or concreting.

Cherry trees do not grow from seed, but from cuttings—for that reason, they are sometimes referred to as clones. This limited gene pool means that an illness or environmental change that is detrimental to one tree could actually wipe out all of them. A cherry tree planted in the same place where one has been removed tends to do poorly.

Thoroughly extracting old roots, disinfecting the ground and adding fresh soil can make replanting more successful. For the , cherry trees that are estimated to be planted along roadsides throughout Japan, such measures are probably too expensive for the public purse. This limited gene pool means that an illness or environmental change […] could actually wipe out all of them. Just as the fleeting lives of cherry blossoms remind us of the need to spend our own short time in the world well, perhaps the trees themselves are telling us that to live well means to leave behind us something worthwhile.

As much as one would love to spend hours gazing at sakura flowers for a well-deserved hanami, the current coronavirus outbreak situation needs us to refrain from joining public gatherings as well as using public transports to reach the best hanami places we know.

However, you still can enjoy some sakura flower beauty…with virtual reality.