10. There's a site that forecasts the peak cherry-blossom bloom date. The Cherry Blossom Festival lasts a whole month, but

If you're lucky enough to visit Tokyo during cherry blossom season, you don't want to waste a moment of precious time. Why? Because you never know when a spring storm will sweep in and blow those perfect pink blossoms away. It happens nearly every year.

Time to book a flight.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) made a pretty good weed joke during a Capitol Hill discussion about cherry blossoms this week

So, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner doesn’t even make the video and he steals the show with his one-liner?

To see more of the cherry blossom goodness on 500px Prime, click here. And if you'd like to license any of the photos above

I took these photos one year ago in Hiroshima, Japan, during a long after-school bike ride. It was almost always a bit grey on the streets of Hiroshima, but the gloominess fit the architecture of the city in a peaceful sort of way.

Seems simple enough, right? Make your way down to the tidal basin, point your camera in the direction of the blossoms and click away. If only it were that simple.

This is the time of year you can consume alcohol in public at your picnic as long as you don't walk around with an open container. So pick up some beer or wine or just a bottle of cold Japanese green tea if you prefer.

In Japan this spring, the color of money is pink. Thanks to the weak yen, Japan is suddenly affordable. Visitors from Asia and elsewhere are coming in record numbers to experience that most iconic of Japanese events, cherry blossom season.

After the message sinks in we are left with the subject matter - hauntingly beautiful images that dance across the picture plane from one side to the middle and beyond like a newly, and quickly forming fissure in the earth.

or the past few weeks, leaving the winter doom meant spending the majority of my time cold, drenched and miserable. Each day brought bouts of torrents with the sun and warmth nowhere in sight.

Of course, Tom Beatty, Mary's nephew says it the best. I'll let his word speak for all of us: Which would she have loved