The first blossoms of the season popped open last week in Tokyo. At the Yasukuni Shrine, a lone Somei Yoshino tree revealed just enough blooms—five, to be exact—for the Japan Meteorological Agency to declare the 2025 cherry blossom (also called sakura) season officially underway.

Cherry blossom season has officially begun in Japan, which considers the dainty pink bloom its national flower.

Visitors are gathering to admire the famous cherry blossoms in Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and other parts of the world as peak bloom is underway this week.A woman takes a photo at Chidorigafuchi, in one of the moats around the Imperial Palace,