This Surreal life with Covid ④ The latest victim - the Sakura Matsuri

As we've heard all large events for the first two weeks in March were cancelled. Even more surprisingly most of the big attractions in the Greater Tokyo area are closed - Tokyo Disney Resort, Sky Tree, Teamlab Borderless and Planets, Seibu Amusement Park - to name, but a few.

But the latest victim in this surreal life with Covid, is the sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festivals), thee highlight of the Japanese calendar annually. Not all of them are cancelled (yet), but over the last few days we've getting word of several of the larger sakura matsuri, and dozens of the smaller ones, cancelling their festivals for 2020. The featured image is of a cherry blossom festival at Kumagaya Air Base which has also been cancelled for 2020. Then just today (March 4th) making matters worse and even more surreal, the Government went a step further by appealing directly to the people not to join cherry blossom viewing parties this year.  

The festivals are typically held for the last week of March and the first week of April, which is outside the recommended period for event cancellation initially given by the Government, but with today's announcement I can't help wondering if they are going to push that date out.

The places that had cancelled their cherry blossom festivals of their own accord before today's announcement, had said that the parks / locations would still be open for people to enjoy the blooms. However, there is a chance now that that might change. It will truly be a surreal spring this year without our beloved sakura matsuri, the latest victim of Covid-19.