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My Favorite Cherry Blossom Photo This Year

Cherry Blossoms or “sakura” are a major part of Japanese culture. I’d say there are at least 200 cherry trees within a mile of my house, and this is not at all unusual. It’s a perfect opportunity to try for the ultimate cherry blossom photo.

Every school yard, public park and playground, has a row of cherry trees. Temples usually have at least one, and many highways are lined with them as well. Starting in early March, the weather report will show the “cherry blossom front” as the trees burst into bloom in succession from south to north along with the warmer spring weather.

Photographers do their utmost to capture the great sea of pink and white that casts a happy sakura glow over the country, and most calendars have the quintessential cherry blossom photo. This year I focused on close-ups of the individual blossoms, and this one is my favorite.

It’s taken standing close to the trunk and pointing up toward the sky. It was the first clear day we’d had in forever, and the bright sun shows the shadows of the stamens for each sakura flower. The blue sky makes a great background, and the blurred cherries stretching away into the background show a little of the volume of flowers in the area. I especially like the little half open buds that look like little pink buttercups.

If you’re planning a trip to Japan, I’d recommend early April, when the sakura are blooming over most of the country. It’s a phenomenon you don’t want to miss!

Autumn Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms are iconic for Japan. They’re not just a national flower. In a sense they represent everything Japanese. Every park, every school, every mountain road, many private gardens, and of course every temple has its share of cherry trees. If you fly over the countryside in April you’ll see that really, the whole nation has taken on a pale pink hue.

If you ask a Japanese person, “Why cherries? Why not roses?” They will explain that its because they identify with the cherry blossom. It’s delicate and refined, and blooms when it is still quite chilly, thus representing enduring hardship with grace and beauty. The main thing they identify with is the fact that they are so short lived. They last only about 3 days, and then rain down from the tree in the slightest breeze. They will tell you that’s how they want to live. Beautifully, and with grace, then when the time comes to let go of life, or even just a relationship or a stage in their life, they want to let go with no struggle and no regrets.

I think it’s a shade on the dark and lonely side to see them trying to be satisfied with this life with no thought of what may come after, but indeed it is a noble effort.

What most Japanese don’t even know is that some types of cherries bloom in the fall as well. In the fall, for some reason the flowers last for weeks. These trees started blooming in mid Sept. and are still going strong six weeks later. A testimony to the fact that life doesn’t necessarily have to be short to be sweet.