Millions flock to Japan for cherry blossom season

Thousands of people, including tourists, have enjoyed Japan's cherry blossom season as cherry trees, or "sakura" as they are known locally, began to flower this week, laying out a pink carpet in parks, avenues and temple lawns.

Although Japan's Meteorological Agency had announced on March 21 that cherry trees were beginning to flower in Tokyo's Yasukuni temple, the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) predicted the flowers were likely to be at their best this weekend.

Cherry trees in parks such as Ueno, home to 1200 such specimens, or the centrally located Hibiya, enticed visitors this week to walk among or picnic beneath trees bursting with colour.

"Cherry trees are beautiful, a symbol of Japan. Their flowering is the spring itself, and one realises the cold of the winter has given way to the new season," said Ayako Sakai, a 34-year-old who works in the chemical industry and who takes a walk under the sakura twice a week while the season lasts.

Sakai added she has been visiting the park since she was a child to enjoy "hanami" (flower viewing), gazing at the beauty of cherry blossoms, which has become "something cultural".

However, the Japanese are not the only ones drawn by the spring landscape, as an increasingly higher number of tourists visit from late March until the beginning of April, the peak season for cherry blossoms.

In 2015, over 1.5 million foreigners arrived in the country in March and over 1.7 million in April, a year-on-year jump of 45.3 and 43.3 per cent respectively, according to JNTO figures.

Hanami, which traditionally marked the New Year's harvest, and the beginning of the rice-sowing season, was originally a practice limited to the Japanese nobility but gained popularity during the Edo period (1603-1867).

The Japanese fascination for cherry trees has spawned several internet apps which help keep a close eye on the sakura season, from the moment the first petals sprout to the effect of atmospheric pressure on the delicate flowers, which barely last a couple of weeks.