Visitors to Tokyo's Ueno park are enjoying the cherry blossom earlier than usual this season.
The country's meteorologists have linked the increasingly early blooms to climate change while temperatures in Tokyo have been unseasonably mild in recent days.
The flowering season is traditionally celebrated with hanami, or viewing parties, with picnics organised beneath the trees.
In recent years these parties were put on halt due to COVID-19 restrictions and the streams of tourists which usually flood into the country were kept out with strict border closures.
Borders reopened last October and Tokyo parks announced that blossom revellers would be allowed to gather freely for the first time since 2019.
