Sakura, an irrepressible love

Sakura, or cherry flower, means more than just a kind of flower. Although sakura represents the transient life of a samurai, it also celebrates the eternal beauty of this spirit. In Japan, sakura-watching can be more than just an entertainment; it can be a cultural event that unites friends, families or even a whole nation.

Because of its tragic beauty, I have long possessed a near-morbid fascination with it. Every time I go through Japanese travel magazines, finding pictures of sakura has become my top priority.

Yoshinoyama(The pictures in this page ) is my favorite sakura-watching spot, for it boasts more than 30,000 cherry trees and 200 kinds of cherry flowers. Yoshinoyama always is a place where heroes come to embrace their tragic endings; no wonder endless literati had come to paid their tributes to this very spirit, this very mountain, this very flower.