Spring to It -- and Win a Prize, With the Cherry Blossom Trail Challenge

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By Howard Schneider

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Sakura, sakura, noyama mo sato mo

Miwatasu kagiri

Kasumi-ka kumo-ka, asahi-ni niou

Sakura, sakura, hanazakari

If you were privileged enough to go to elementary school in Bethesda in the early 1990s, you may have heard Vicky crooning this song with her classmates in schoolgirl Japanese.

Roughly translated it means:

The cherry blossoms are blooming

That's what the meteorologist sees

So get off your duffs and take a walk

And maybe you'll win a . . . preeze?

At least, I think that's what it means. Down where I grew up, fal de ri fal de ra was about as foreign as it got when it came to singing.

This is a long way of saying that we've mapped out the latest Trail Challenge -- an easy lap around the Tidal Basin on a week that coincides with the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival and that with any luck should also match this year's peak bloom. At least those are the dates Ozzie the dog slobbered on when I stuck a calendar under his nose and asked for his best prediction.

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