The best darn collection of O-hanami camera-phone pics in the whole, wide universe!

In springtime, the "cherry-blossom front" slowly advances over the countryside from Kyushu up to Hokkaido. And the sakura blossoms open-up for two short weeks...

Yes, without a doubt, this is the finest time of the year to be in Japan. Just on the heels of the teeth-chattering chill of the winter and just before the onset of the intolerable sauna-like heat of the summer, scads of shocking pink bursts upon all of the parks like an unexpected fever-dream. The result? The tradition of o-hanami: "honorable looking at flowers."

For about two or three idyllic weeks, the parks are packed with slack-jawed gawkers and one can savor the sudden onrush of in-your-face flora.

But there's also my favorite part of o-hanami... The inevitable weekend picnics, featuring gallons of booze!

Yeah, the picture doesn't capture it very well but, trust me, it can turn into a total Bacchanalia at times.

Relatively speaking, of course.