{"id":3084,"date":"2018-11-12T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T01:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluedottravel.com.au\/?p=3084"},"modified":"2022-11-28T11:16:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T00:16:26","slug":"chasing-cherry-blossom-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sydney-websites.com\/bluedotold\/chasing-cherry-blossom-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing cherry blossom in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Take a tour named\u00a0<i>Japan in Spring<\/i>\u00a0and it\u2019s perfectly reasonable to expect to see cherry blossom &#8230; and lots of it. What I didn\u2019t expect was the fervour that came with the pursuit \u2013 I can now identify with those crazy tornado chasers in the southern USA! We certainly didn\u2019t put our lives at risk but many of us were surprised at the lengths to which we considered going so as to not leave Japan without experiencing cherry blossom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Arriving in Tokyo we learnt we weren\u2019t too late \u2013 the sakura buds were still curled up on the trees, barely starting to wake. In former capital Kamekura, warmer weather had brought full bloom on some trees and we were content we were on course.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Chasing cherry blossom sneaks up on you. To start with, it\u2019s not that important \u2013 something to tick it off the list &#8230; bragging rights &#8230; no doubt pretty but not exactly life-changing \u2013 but the chase takes on far more important as the local frenzy builds. Cherry-blossom-flavoured everything is for sale and we lent our full support \u2013 ice cream, tea, chocolate, lollies. A pop-up TV channel reports 24\/7 on the current status of the bloom AND its predicted progress across the nation. It\u2019s all tied to the weather \u2013 sunshine and warmth are good; cold slows progress; wind and rain are bad as they can ruin the bloom in an instant. \u00a0A few days before we arrive in Kyoto, hoping to see the trees lining Philosopher\u2019s Walk groaning under their load of blooms, official predictions were looking positive and we were looking smug.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">But how ephemeral the ephemeral can be. Just like those pesky tornadoes in the US, we got ahead of the game and the bloom was now chasing us &#8230; we were too early! We were walking a weather knife-edge: with no blossom yet in Kyoto, news broke that Tokyo\u2019s already-full bloom wouldn\u2019t last long enough for us to see it &#8230; we would be too late! \u00a0We looked into cutting short our stay in Tokyo at tour-end to return to Kyoto. We investigated changing flights, buying bullet train tickets and booking hotel rooms. The thought processes of sensible adults went \u2026 well \u2026 silly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">We started to come to terms with the disappointment that was probably to be our lot. We could come back \u2026 what we\u2019d seen already was still very pretty \u2026 who likes cherry blossom anyway? And then we returned to Tokyo. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Into the city\u2019s beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen park we went and the chase was over: ahead lay some 400 somei yoshino trees, boughs heavy with sakura. You instinctively look upwards \u2013 not a single green leaf on the 8-10m tall trees \u2026 just endless puffs of tiny, delicate pale pink and white petals, straight out of a fairy tale. But don\u2019t forget to look down \u2013 beneath the trees lies a soft dusting of the petals that have already let go. Wander underneath the floral arbour to enter a different space; wander on the surrounding manicured grass and look in from the outside. Every perspective is breathtaking \u2013 and well worth the chase. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">It\u2019s a very special experience to be immersed in such natural beauty while cradled in the arms of the world\u2019s most populous metropolis. Such is the wonder and striking contrast of travel to Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s3\"><b>Blue Dot Travel<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0offers Japan tours for small groups and families. \u00a0<b><span class=\"s2\"><span class=\"s3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bluedottravel.com.au\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Contact us<\/a>\u00a0to register your interest for future tours.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">By Marion Fagan<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take a tour named\u00a0Japan in Spring\u00a0and it\u2019s perfectly reasonable to expect to see cherry blossom &#8230; and lots of it. What I didn\u2019t expect was the fervour that came with the pursuit \u2013 I can now identify with those crazy tornado chasers in the southern USA! We certainly didn\u2019t put our lives at risk but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[252],"tags":[332],"class_list":["post-3084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-japan","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chasing cherry blossom in Japan - Blue Dot Travel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Take a tour named\u00a0Japan in Spring\u00a0and it\u2019s perfectly reasonable to expect to see cherry blossoms ... and lots of them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chasing cherry blossom in Japan - 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