Sawt Falasteen - Tourists and locals enjoy 'ephemeral' Tokyo cherry blossoms

Crowds flocked to the city's top locations to take photos and hold picnics under the elegant dark branches bursting with pink and white flowers, known as "sakura" in Japanese.

"Honestly it feels pretty amazing to be here. It's honestly better than we expected. And it only comes around every once in a while and only for a short span of time," Christian Sioting, a tourist from the Philippines, told AFP.

"It's an ephemeral experience and we're pretty happy that we got to be here and to witness it in full bloom too."

The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Sunday declared the country's most common and popular "somei yoshino" variety of cherry tree in full bloom in Tokyo.

Although this year's blooming dates are around the average, the JMA says climate change and the urban heat-island effect are causing sakura to flower approximately 1.2 days earlier every 10 years.

"Seeing photos is another thing, but being here, (to) really see the sakura in your eyes... it's really amazing," said Ralf Ng from Hong Kong.

A weak yen is attracting more visitors than ever to Japan, with national tourism figures released in January showing a record of about 36.8 million arrivals last year.

Tokyo resident Kayoko Yoshihara, 69, organises annual flower-viewing picnics with her friends, including one held last week as the cherry trees began to bloom.

"After enduring the cold winter, the cherry blossoms bloom and it makes you feel like you're motivated to head towards summer," she told AFP.

"When the trees are at full bloom, it's so beautiful that you just become speechless," she said.

K.AbuDahab--SF-PST