CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME IN JAPAN

In exactly two weeks I fly off to follow the blooming cherry blossoms in Japan.  From the last week of March till the first week of April, then the last week of April into early May.  I have two-week and one-week Japan Rail Passes and hope to track the blossoming Sakura through Kyushu and Honshu.

Here is the latest predicted blossoming schedule for 2019:

If those Full Bloom dates are accurate, I should be in great shape to see them all.  There are more than 100 types of cherry blossoms.  The Japanese sent 3,020 Yoshino cherry trees to DC in 1912, more than 100 years ago.


I will also stop through South Korea from April 16-21, so I'll be too late.

However, azaleas bloom throughout April, and so do rapeseed fields:

The bottom photo is a canola field in Busan.  I'll be there on the 18th of April.  Many confuse rapeseed (left) with canola (right).  The fields look almost identical, but canola blooms a bit earlier and is a hybrid version of rapeseed.

I then return to Japan from April 23 to May 1, so will Shinkansen through the northern portion of Japan:

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