Ultimately I think you’re right, but on the other hand, do your really expect Mr Weather Map Sharpie to not try to pass off dumb blatant lies?

SNL did it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YChioDnHxm4

Not as famous as Gift of the Magi, but O Henry is pretty iconic in general

Just don’t make it like Jamie Oliver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ransom_of_Red_Chief

It’s a few cerebral cells across a mesh-- I think achieving consciousness needs a bit more than that

Here’s an example of the maps I mentioned. You can search a map of sakura (cherry tree) or hanami (cherry blossom viewing) 2026 and some sites will come up, or you can check this or this weather site that has maps every year. Not entirely sure what month they get released, but it might be only a month or so before the season (so Feb or Mar).

There are some nice spots in Tokyo, but if you want to get out a bit you could go to Yamanashi spots or maybe Tochigi (~2 hrs from Tokyo).

I live in the countryside so of course I’m biased, but I think the best places are found by hopping a bullet train 2-3 hours north– you can see where a few places are on the map in this article.

lemme know if you have any questions when you get around to planning your trip-- my friend always jokes that I’m on the unofficial tourism board for my area bc I like living in the boonies so much

Just get out of tokyo. There are tons of places with natural cherry views in the countryside. There are also castle areas that have the trees.

Early April is when the trees usually bloom in Tokyo and further west like Osaka or kyoto. Another week or so after that they start moving north. There are cherry blossom forecast maps they release every year

For once they didn’t forget gen X-- I think OP is about xennials

https://web.archive.org/web/20150423212047/http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/

I’d be interested in Octopath Traveler.

As for cool stuff, I live in Japan these days, and every summer there are festivals that go on every night for several days in a row. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of the festivals back home in the US, I think because the repeated music and chanting isn’t really something we do. One of the festivals near me makes these giant 20+ m floats that you can see over the tops of buildings. This is contrasted with the fact that the area is kind of poor (for Japan), and is losing population like almost all rural areas, so coming together to put on this kind of event every year makes things feel hopeful in a way.

Here’s a yt clip showing some aspects of one of the festivals.