Sakura in Japan | Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto

I’m going a bit all over the place with posts from Japan. I have a bunch of other posts I want to tackle before I get to blogging about our most recent trip, but before the seasons changed yet again I wanted to post a few cherry blossom photos taken in Japan.

Sakura, or cherry blossoms, in Japan was one of those bucket list sort of things that I don’t think I ever really planned on checking. As much as I love blossoms, I do not enjoy crowds of tourists taking photos of said blossoms.  We didn’t plan our trip with the expectation of viewing blossoms. It was still early Spring and blossoms tend to bloom towards the end of March/early April. I guess we got lucky. After a few wonderfully warm days of sunny short-sleeves-and-sandals sort of weather the cherry blossoms came to life.

When we first arrived in Kyoto only a few trees had buds. By the time we left,  pretty much every single one began to burst with fluffy pink balls.

As expected, with the blossoms came the tourists. People went absolutely nuts over a single blooming flower — of any sort. We’re talking selfies galore, tripods, ladies crouching in bushes posing seductively, people photographing the same flower for over an hour, etc. In a way I couldn’t really blame them.  Spring is pretty magical to witness after a long winter.  And seeing cherry blossoms, tourists and all, never gets old.

We left Japan just before the blossoms peaked but we still found a few quiet spots and out-of-the-way gardens in Kyoto where the blossoms were in full glorious bloom.

being stupid together is what we do best

There is a Japanese phrase that beautifully captures the fleeting nature of sakura:  mono no aware.

the awareness of impermanence (無常mujō), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life.”

I’m not sure how successful I am at capturing the ephemeral magic of sakura, though it is not for lack of trying. It’s a moment in time that is impossible to truly preserve in a medium like photographs, the pictures never ever seem to live up to the vibrant, larger-than-life, memories. And yet, every year, every time I pick up my camera, I keep trying, hoping that maybe one day I’ll be able to bottle up those precious, evanescent moments forever.