Over the weekend I took a drive with Mrs. J-List up to the mountains above Karuizawa, the pleasant city in Nagano Prefecture that’s a nice getaway for people in Tokyo. One of the problems with cherry blossom season in Japan is that it’s so short, usually just 7-10 days, and strong winds or rain always threaten to make it even shorter. There’s a solution to this problem, however: head for the hills, since you effectively roll back the season a few days for every 100 meters of elevation you gain. Down where J-List is located the cherry blossoms have sadly ended their fleeting beauty for the year, but during our pleasant drive over the mountains to we got to experience all stages of sakura again, from 桜名残 sakura-nagori or the “melancholy felt in the aftermath of the cherry blossoms’ passing” to 桜雨 sakura-ame or a “rain of sakura petals” to 満開 mankai, with flowers in full glorious bloom, and so on. So if you ever plan a trip to Japan but find (as sometimes happens) that you’ve missed the cherry blossom season, remember you can head for the mountains and still find some.
You can travel back in time and enjoy sakura if you like.
