{"id":43026,"date":"2022-03-30T13:08:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T04:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/mar\/30\/we-have-waited-so-long-a-cautious-tokyo-celebrates-cherry-blossoms-in-shadow-of-covid"},"modified":"2022-03-30T13:08:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T04:08:28","slug":"we-have-waited-so-long-a-cautious-tokyo-celebrates-cherry-blossoms-in-shadow-of-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=43026","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have waited so long\u2019: a cautious Tokyo celebrates cherry blossoms in shadow of Covid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rise in infections since quasi-emergency restrictions were lifted sparks concern that long-awaited hanami season could help fuel a resurgence<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/coronavirus-outbreak\">See all our coronavirus coverage<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After two years of pandemic-related <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/mar\/21\/cherry-blossom-festivals-nipped-in-the-bud-as-japan-leaves-lockdown\">cancellations<\/a> and restrictions, Japan is again observing the time-honoured ritual of <em>hanami<\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/gallery\/2022\/mar\/30\/cherry-blossom-season-blooms-in-japan-in-pictures\">cherry blossom viewing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As the delicate pink flowers reached their peak, people who had previously avoided the crowds \u2013 or had their local viewing festivals called off \u2013 have turned out in large numbers to view Tokyo\u2019s <em>sakura<\/em> petals.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/mar\/30\/we-have-waited-so-long-a-cautious-tokyo-celebrates-cherry-blossoms-in-shadow-of-covid\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rise in infections since quasi-emergency restrictions were lifted sparks concern that long-awaited hanami season could help fuel a resurgenceSee all our coronavirus coverageAfter two years of pandemic-related cancellations and restrictions, Japan is ag&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,88,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-japan","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43027,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43026\/revisions\/43027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}