I am super excited to know that we don’t have to travel to Japan for Cherry Blossoms, also known as “Sakura” after the Japanese. The first Sakura Park in the Philippines is going to blossom soon. Yahoooooo! Yeeeheeeey! Yaaaaassss! That’s my “3-Y” expression when I’m very happy — heheh!

CNN Philippines announced that we will soon have a cherry blossom park in the country. Officials planted over 30 cherry blossoms and other kinds of trees from Japan on Monday (June 6) in Atok, Benguet.

The first-ever sakura or cherry blossom park in the country is opening in Benguet.

Officials of Atok, Benguet, along with officials from the Kochi prefecture and Japanese embassy planted over 30 cherry blossoms and other kinds of trees from Japan on Monday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of sisterhood ties between Japan’s Kochi prefecture and Benguet province.

The mountaintop park 2,000 meters above sea level will be opened to campers.

More than 100 cherry blossoms were initially propagated in November 2015 but only a few survived because they were planted at the wrong time of the year, according to Japanese botanist Kiyuharu Yamamoto.

This time, they are planting it at the start of the rainy season.

They also intend to plant sakura trees in several other nature parks in Benguet such as Mt. Timbac and Mt. Pulag.

The sakura trees are expected to bloom after three years. Atok is about 2 hours and 30 minutes away from Baguio City.

While, we are still waiting for the sakura to blossom in the Philippines, here’s a glimpse of very few cherry blossoms I witnessed during my holiday in Japan last March 2016. Most of the trees are full of buds that are about to blossom. My trip timing was not so perfect, I was one week earlier. I visited Japan for Sakura experience plus food hopping. 🙂

PATH OF CHERRY BLOSSOM “SAKURA” IN OSAKA CASTLE

CHERRY BLOSSOM TREES WITH LOADS OF BUDS