Why is the season so short?
The problem with planning a trip to see Japan's cherry blossoms is that you can't schedule nature. Adding to their allure, the blooms of the cherry tree don't stick around for long.
Most blossoms are only on show for a week, some even less if the weather is bad. Wind and rain can wreak havoc on the delicate flowers.
The blossoms appear on the trees before the leaves come in, giving the trees their rosy/white hue.
To Japanese, the short blooming period of the sakura signifies that winter has come to an end and spring is on its way. Philosophically speaking, sakura are a metaphor for the fleeting nature of life.
It's a culture the Japanese have long been happy to export abroad.
For instance, since 1935 Washington, D.C. has held its own annual Cherry Blossom Festival, made possible by a gift from Tokyo. Back in 1912, the Japanese capital sent 3,000 sakura trees to the United States capital as a symbol of the two nations' friendship.
That friendship, of course, went temporarily sour and the two nations ended up at war. During World War II, cherry blossoms were associated with the kamikaze pilots who sacrificed themselves for their nation.
By all accounts, cherry blossoms are a bittersweet affair. Especially if you miss them.