TOKYO (AP) 鈥 Crowds gathered Friday to enjoy Japan's famed cherry blossoms in Tokyo, where cold weather has delayed their bloom.
Cherry blossoms, known as 鈥渟akura鈥 in Japanese, are the nation's favorite flower. People often have sakura viewing parties beneath the falling petals, where there are also picnics and sake drinking.
Vidyuth Lakshman, 36, a tourist from Canada, said she鈥檇 seen cherry blossoms in her homeland but 鈥渘ot on this scale. The scale here is crazy."
The trees usually are at peak bloom in late March to early April, at the same time the country begins a new school and business year.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e really breathtaking,鈥 said Silver Shea, 47, a tourist from the United States who was visiting Japan for a month with her 11-year-old daughter. 鈥淲e leave in about a week, and we were getting nervous that we weren鈥檛 going to get to see them blooming.鈥
Others were also worried about missing the blooms.
"Every day we kept waiting for the cherry blossoms," said Satya Kandula, 30, another tourist from Canada. 鈥淲e are leaving tomorrow so we鈥檙e so happy that on the last day we got to see the full bloom.鈥
