Better early than never.

It’s autumn once again in Japan, and that means sweet potatoes are in season, the leaves on trees turn a beautiful crimson, and cherry blossoms delight many with their gentle hues. You might have thought cherry blossoms were a spring thing, but nature likes to keep us on our toes every once in a while.

On the morning of 17 October, visitors to Garyu Park in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, were surprised to find a scattering of sakura among the autumn foliage. Garyu Park is famous as one of the best parks for cherry blossom viewing in Japan, but currently, the small flowers have been very patchy compared to what’s seen in the spring. Still, clusters of as many as 10 blossoms could be seen.

▼ “In Garyu Park, near the zoo, cherry blossoms are blooming out of season. If you’re lucky, you might spot some.”

▼ “Believe it or not, cherry blossoms bloomed in Garyu Park. Real autumn sakura. So, I went out for a walk at 6am and took some photos. Someone who was out walking their dog told me this happens every year.”

Locals were very excited about this unexpected blooming, but also expressed concern that it might affect the actual cherry blossom season that usually occurs in and around April. Readers of the news online were also concerned about this unusual phenomenon and shared other out-of-season appearances in their areas.

“I saw several blossoms on the tree behind my office the other day.”
“I wonder if they’ll still bloom in spring too.”
“I heard cicadas in Saitama.”
“I heard cicadas. I can’t tell what season it is anymore.”
“This feels like an end-of-the-world kind of thing.”
“There’s a lot more mosquitoes out now too. They’re changing from summer insects to autumn ones.”
“Our four seasons are now early summer, intense heat, lingering heat, and winter.”
“30 degrees is pretty cool! I’m going to start getting used to saying that now.”
“Being able to enjoy the cherry blossoms of spring and cicadas of summer in autumn is a great value.”
“Words like ‘kuruizaki‘ and ‘kaerizaki‘ have been used to describe this phenomenon for centuries.”

Although quite rare, it’s true that cherry blossoms in autumn are not unheard of throughout Japanese history, and the mechanism behind it is well understood. Sakura trees usually develop their buds throughout the summer, but just before the buds are ready to pop open, they’re held back by a hormone called abscisic acid.

Abscisic acid is delivered to the buds by the leaves of the tree, and by the time the leaves naturally fall from the tree, the temperature is low enough to keep the buds in a state of dormancy by themselves. However, sometimes the leaves fall off prematurely due to other factors, the most common being the strong winds of typhoons that tend to make landfall in September and October.

The combination of enough lost leaves and stubbornly high temperatures well into mid-October in many parts of Japan may strip away all of the natural checks that would prevent a sakura from blossoming, causing some to trigger prematurely.

Luckily, Garyu Park boasts some 600 trees and should still have more than enough to put on its usual display next spring. It’s also expected to finally cool down in the following week, so if your part of Japan was recently hit by a typhoon, you might want to quickly check out cherry blossom trees near you and see if a little early sakura is waiting.

Source: NTV News, My Game News Flash
Top image: Pakutaso
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