Cherry Blossoms = Spring

I miss the flowering cherry trees that mark the beginning of spring in Seattle.  When I mentioned this in an earlier blog post, a reader commented that I should go see the cherry trees in Sakura Park.  The cherry trees are planted along the path up to the National Art Gallery across the Nemunas River from the city center.  The trees were planted to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kaunas who rescued hundreds of Jews by granting Japanese transit visas.  I went to the park last Thursday afternoon when the sun was shining.  These are a different kind of cherry tree than the ones we have in Seattle and I think I missed the full blossoming, but I still got to see what is — for me — is a symbol of spring.

The National Gallery of Art glimpsed through the cherry blossoms