The peach blossoms begin to smile

Earlier today I wrote about how the peach blossoms had started to bloom in the Greater Tokyo Area. Then this evening I realized that today is actually the first day of the micro season called First Peach Blossoms or "The Peach Blossoms Begin to Smile", 桃始笑 (Momo hajimete saku).  It is the 8th micro season of the year, and the 2nd of the solar term known as "Insects Awaken". 

Compared with the fraught anticipation of plum blossoms or the dramatic arrival of cherry blossoms, peach flowers often arrive silently. Despite their significance throughout Japan's history, and the fact that they have a micro season named after them, in recent years they don't seem as revered. Something I find hard to fathom as they are as beautiful as cherry blossoms with as an inviting fragrance as plum blossoms.

The micro season when "the peach blossoms begin to smile" brings subtle beginnings; the first shy petals, the delicate fragrance, and the sense that nature is smiling back at us after winter’s long quiet.