Source: The Economist

Hanami is the Japanese term for contemplating the brevity and beauty of life, by spending time among the fragile blossom that pleases us in the day while braving the frost at night. Sakura is the word for the blossom. A researcher at Osaka Prefecture University, Japan, Yasuyuki Anono, has  made use of all sorts of information available, including classic literature, to chart the première date of the cherry blossom over the centuries. (Btw, “The Tale of Genji” may be the world’s first novel. It is from the tenth century and contains a chapter describing the cherry-blossom festival staged in the emperor’s great hall. – I will get back to contemporary findings re Nature’s positive influence on our mood and behaviour.)

What is clear from the time chart of cherry blossom is that there have always been fluctuations – AND  that during the past half-century or so we see clearly that the blossom appears quite a bit earlier than before, so that it now takes place around 2 April. The findings tally with global info from for example IPCC about ever warmer years lately.  – Is there some phenomenon observed in Indonesia, pointing towards climate change?