Pale white or darker pink blossoms begin to bloom on the knobbly cherry blossom branches and a whole country watches in breathless anticipation as more and more of the fragile flowers appear. Television stations and other media broadcast the sakura situation to their millions of viewers, detailing where blossoms are not yet begun, where they are almost in full bloom, where they are almost over and, of course, the best place to see the perfect display. Train stations show boards with pictorial representations of the state of the flowers next to place names and people flock from one end of the country to the other to see the best displays.
The brief perfection of the sakura has inspired many a Japanese poet and author as well as foreign writers who compare the flower to lives of famous but short-lived people and the ravages of time. Each blossom is only at it’s best for few days of the year although there are some who prefer the snow-like effect of the bloom’s end or the blanket of pinky white spread beneath the branches that results once the blossoms fall. Some tell tales of the sakura which resemble the story of the Ugly Duckling where the resultant flower is perfection.