Cherry Blossom Forecast Off by a couple of Weekends

The Japanese Meterological Agency has the predictions for Cherry Blossom budding down to a science..this year, a very inexact science.

Someone messed up…told everyone in Tokyo the Cherry Blossoms would be out last weekend. Wrong.

The real date will be later this month, around March 18th, still about 10 days earlier than normal….Go, Global Warming!

 Cherry Blossoms bloom for only about a week. And there is a 3-4 day period when they are at their best.

Japanese everywhere take advantage of that period, almost always on a weekend if the sakura will cooperate to do 'hanami' flower viewing.

Parties and drunkeness ensue, under the Cherry Blossom tree. Junior workers are sent out before dawn to reserve prime spaces for senior workers to picnic at later in the day.

It's a big deal. And the Cherry Blossoms rarely disappoint…beautiful, albeit fleeting.

But, an old girlfriend of mine told me that the fleetingness of the Cherry Blossoms is what is most appealing. It reminds the viewer that beauty is only temporary…substance, however, lasts forever.

Have you ever done 'hanami?'