Sakura ( 桜 or 櫻 or さくら in Japanese) is the Japanese flowering cherry. Every year Japanese track the cherry-blossom front as it moves northward starting in Okinawa in January and reaching Kyoto and Tokyo in March/April. Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) festivals date from the third 
century CE. This picture of sakura was taken by my friend Kazunori Noda in Nara. Nara was the capital of Japan in the 8th century beginning in 710. The most famous temple in Nara is Todai-ji, which I believe is the largest wooden structure in the world and houses the world’s largest statue of the Buddha Vairocana (Daibutsu). 
2010 is the 1300th anniversary of Nara becoming a capital of Japan. If you haven’t visited Nara, this would be a good year to do it. And the best time to go is in Autumn when a selection of the 9000 artifacts from the Shōsōin, the imperial treasure house of the Emperor Shomu, who made Nara the capital of Japan in the 8th century, are shown to the public. I’ve been twice and the selection is always different.
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