TOKYO, April 4, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Tourists and residents packed Tokyo's top 
cherry blossom spots on Thursday to enjoy the full bloom that has arrived in 
the Japanese capital later than usual this year because of cold weather.

The elegant dark branches bursting with pink and white flowers -- known as 
sakura in Japanese -- spilled over the moat of the Imperial Palace, where 
people gathered to snap photos or simply take in the view.

"Cherry blossoms are so symbolic and make everything around you feel joyful 
and beautiful," Michitaka Saito, 68, told AFP.

"It makes me feel that I've made a good start on the year ahead," said Saito, 
who makes an annual visit to Chidorigafuchi Park beside the moat in central 
Tokyo.

Sakura season traditionally accompanies the beginning of the new fiscal year 
in Japan, representing fresh starts but also the fleeting impermanence of 
life.

Eiko Hirose, 76, said that enjoying the cherry blossoms with her husband 
Sadao "means I'm healthy, and he's good, and we all have a good time".

"We take it for granted that we can see it next year again, but who knows? 
Something may happen," she said.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) declared on Thursday that the 
country's most common and popular "somei yoshino" variety of cherry tree was 
in full bloom, four days later than average for the city.

While the agency attributes this year's tardy blooms to cold weather, it has 
raised the alarm that climate change is making the delicate petals appear 
sooner in the long term.

Last year's sakura began to flower on March 14 -- the joint earliest date on 
record along with 2020 and 2021 -- and hit full bloom on March 22.

"Since 1953, the average start date for cherry blossoms to bloom in Japan has 
been becoming earlier at the rate of approximately 1.2 days per 10 years," 
the JMA says.

"The long-term increase in temperature is thought to be a factor" as well as 
other reasons such as the urban heat island effect, according to the agency.

Tourism to Japan has been booming since pandemic-era border restrictions were 
lifted, and an international crowd was also out enjoying the scenery on 
Thursday.

Kamilla Kielbowska, a 35-year-old from New York, planned her third trip to 
Japan around the blossoms.

"We arrived here on, I believe, March 23. And I was joking... 'OK, we gotta 
go to this park straight from the airport, I cannot miss sakura.'"
But "it was super cold, and no trees were blossoming. And I was a little bit 
sad, but hoping that I'll still see them in full blossom before I leave."

"It definitely lived up to expectations," she said, calling the sight 
"marvellous" and "very magical".

Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University, estimates the 
economic impact of cherry blossom season in Japan, from travel to parties 
held under the flowers, at 1.1 trillion yen ($7.3 billion) this year, up from 
616 billion yen in 2023.