It's that time of year again.

The cherry blossoms--in Japanese, 桜（さくら）--are coming, and everyone is planning when, where, and how to お花見（おはなみ）with their homies.

お花見（おはなみ）, which is literally "お + flower + see" is when you go to a place with lots of beautiful (cherry) trees and enjoy the show. Maybe with food. Maybe with beer, wine, juice--whatever. While I was writing this lesson, Rei pointed out that including the honorific prefix お is the norm for this word... to my shock and horror, as I'm pretty sure I've just been saying 花見（はなみ）all these years. T_T

But it would totally suck to go to お花見（おはなみ）only to find that there aren't any flowers! That's why we have...

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さくら開花予想 // The Cherry Blossom Forecast

桜（さくら）, as we saw, means "cherry blossoms."

Then 開花（かいか） means "blooming" (literally, "open + flower"). Note that this is a noun. It is not the verb for "to bloom," which is 咲く（さく）.

Finally, 予想（よそう）means "expectation; prediction; forecast."

→　さくら開花予想（さくら　かいか　よそう）, then, means "The Cherry Blossom Forecast."

Here's a site that has a "sakura forecast." On that page, you'll find an image like this:

Specifically, that says...

ウェザーマップ予想２０１６
さくら開花前線
３月２４日発表

ウェザーマップ　よそう　にせんじゅうろく
さくら　かいか　ぜんせん
さんがつ　にじゅうよんにち【よっか】　はっぴょう

Weather Map Forecast 2016
The Cherry Blossom Front
As of March 24

Literally, Line #1: "weather map + forecast + 2016."
Literally, Line #2: "cherry blossom + blooming + front line / weather front."
Literally, Line #3: "March 24 + announcement."

Note: I had a nightmare of a time trying to figure out if ２４日 should be written/pronounced にじゅうよんにち or にじゅうよっか. Japanese people seem to be in disagreement on this one, as I've seen different people saying and recommending different readings. Rei said that she probably uses にじゅうよんにち, but there are several people online very strongly recommending にじゅうよっか. So... yeah... I have no idea. I'm just going to forget this was ever an issue. Brain wipe!

See those squiggly lines on that weather map? The ones with the dates written beside them?

That's called the:

桜前線
さくらぜんせん
cherry blossom front

I think this is such a cool word and concept. A wave of cherry blossoms working its way up the country one day at a time. Here's this year's blossom forecast in detail:

If we zoom in, we'll see that each of these little charts is for a separate region of the country.

It sucks learning place names in Japanese... but it's also something that you'll have to do at some point... probably. To be entirely honest, I don't know the names of a ton of places on that chart.

関東甲信（越）
かんとうこうしん（えつ）
Kanto and Kōshin'etsu region
Note: Kōshin'etsu region encompasses three prefectures: Yamanashi (山梨県), Nagano (長野県), and Niigata (仁賀田健).

So, anyways, since I'm in Tokyo right now, let's zoom in on 関東（かんとう）:

Too many place names! Agh!

You should at least be able to read these ones, though:

東京（とうきょう // Tokyo）、横浜（よこはま // Yokohama）、長野（ながの // Nagano）.

Even more useful to learn is these three words:

地点（ちてん // site; spot; point on a map）、開花日（かいかび // blooming day; day of first bloom）、満開日（まんかいび // full bloom day）.

If we scroll down to Tokyo, then, we see that the first day of blooming is March 21, and the blossoms will be in full bloom on March 31.

This word 満開（まんかい）, literally meaning "full + open" is one that I use quite frequently when talking about cherry blossoms. Like this:

満開いつ？
まんかい　いつ？
When will the blossoms be in full bloom?
Literally: "full bloom + when?"

満開３１日だって。
まんかい　さんじゅういちにち　だって。
Apparently the blossoms will be in full bloom on the 31st. // This says that the blossoms will be in full bloom on the 31st.
Literally: "full bloom + the 31st + is + って."

While we're on the topic...

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Cherry Blossom Frenzy Survival Phrases!

Let's get our お花見 on with these blooming phrases...

来週お花見しよう！
らいしゅう　おはなみ　しよう！
Let's go see cherry blossoms next week!
Literally: "next week + cherry blossom viewing + let's do."
Note: I wanted to say 行こう（いこう // "let's go"）, but Rei said しよう, "let's do" is more common. I'm really off my game today.

桜綺麗だね。
さくら　きれい　だ　ね。
(The) Cherry blossoms are pretty, aren't they?
Literally: "cherry blossoms + pretty + are + ね."
Note: You may have noticed, but you can use kanji or hiragana for 桜／さくら. Rei prefers kanji... as do I.

いい花見スポットありますか。
いい　はなみ　スポット　ありますか。
Is there a good place to view cherry blossoms (near here)?
Literally: "good + cherry blossom viewing + spot + is + か."
Note: I thought this was such a strange sentence, because it doesn't have any words like "nearby" or "around here," but Rei didn't think it was necessary. It's little things like this, perhaps, that keep my Japanese from sounding 100% native. Oh, also, since we're adding スポット, it sounds pretty natural to drop the お off of お花見（おはなみ）... I have no idea why.

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Singing About Cherry Blossoms

Last but not least, you may want to check out this beautiful song about cherry blossoms:

"Sakura," by Naotaro Moriyami

Version #1 (singing alone)
Version #2 (singing with his mom)
Version #3 (singing with a school choir)
Version #4 (singing at a school)
Version #5 (singing with piano)

And here are the (untranslated) lyrics:

ぼくらはきっと待ってる
君とまた会える日々を
桜並木のみちの上で
手を振り叫ぶよ

どんなに苦しい時も
君は笑っているから
くじけそうになりかけても
頑張れる気がしたよ
かすみゆく景色の中に
あの日の歌が聞こえる

さくら　さくら　今咲きほこる
刹那に散るゆくさだめと知って
さらば友よ　旅立ちのとき
変わらないその想いを　今

今なら言えるだろうか
偽りのない言葉
輝ける君の未来を
願うほんとの言葉
移りゆく街はまるで
僕らをせかすように

さくら　さくら　ただ舞い落ちる
いつか生まれ変わる時を信じ
泣くな友よ　惜別のとき
飾らないあの笑顔で　さあ

さくら　さくら　いざ舞い上がれ
とわにさんざめく光を浴びて
さらば友よ　またこの場所で会おう
さくら舞い散るみちの
さくら舞い散るみちの上で

Sorry if they're too difficult. *_*
At the very least, you can probably catch that he's saying さくら 20,000 times.
Oh wait, actually I found an English translation here (haven't checked it for quality, though).