Japan's cherry blossom database, 1,200 years old, has a new keeper
nytimes.comUnlocked article (found on Reddit): https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/climate/japan-cherry-blos...
Data points: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/date-of-the-peak-cherry-t...
> Initially, they didn’t have much luck. No other researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University, where Prof. Aono worked, would be taking over his record-keeping, Hiroko Nishino, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email.
I’m surprised that there was lackluster response. For this kind of honor, you would think that there would be a flood of responses. I am attributing it to bad marketing.
Part of me also thinks: yes, but is there any money/compensation attached to this? Honor, sadly, doesn't pay for grad students or soft money researchers.
> Honor, sadly, doesn't pay for grad students
Are you kidding? Grad students are well known to receive trivial monetary pay. Most of their pay is in honor.
They still need to eat, and that trivial monetary pay component must come from somewhere . . .
Not really, there is a promise of a better career in the future.
That's the honor
No, that would be deferred compensation. The only problem with that theory is that it isn't real. Grad students aren't working for the promise of a better career in the future.
“That’s a risk we were willing to take.” -Dumb and Dumber
Depends on what they’re studying and where. If you’re a PhD student English Literature at Directional State University most of your compensation is consumption value, not the promise of a career[1] or pecuniary compensation.
[1] For the huge majority of PhD students in the Arts and Humanities there are virtually no jobs in their fields and it’s not that much better in the social or exact sciences, though there is at least some extra academic demand for their skills. There are very, very few fields outside academia where a doctorate is a necessary qualification or close to it and those are ~all a terrible investment if what you want is a remunerative career; things like biomedical research where you do a doctorate, then a postdoc and then get a job paying what an MBA from a top tier business school gets their first year out.
Advice I got from an ex-cancer biologist working at a devices company: get your masters, and get out. PhD programs will always be there, but compound interest won’t.
Not usually how things work in Japanese culture
I'd like you to elaborate more on your answer
Are people not paid?
It could also be that doing the work isn't held in as high esteem as you think.
You're supposed to keep an apprentice, man!
Japan's cherry blossom truly are wonderful, but I'm not gonna lie, I've seen as beautiful elsewhere, especially in central Europe, Poland especially.
Agreed. Classic case of the “Thing vs Thing, Japan” meme
Hahaha! I'm from Japan, but I totally agree. Honestly, I often find other cultures even more charming in many ways.
The unfamiliar usually is, especially when you aren’t there to experience the less obvious negative aspects of a given culture.
Outside of Japan, Japanese culture often gets put on a pedestal but it of course isn’t without its own issues that aren’t apparent to outsiders viewing from a distance.
Except Place doesn’t have amazing vending machines and konbini like Place, Japan does :D
You are just reinforcing the meme perfectly, well done!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBabka_(convenience_store)
Zabkas are no match to the experience of Lawson, 7-11, etc.
Zabkas, e.g., have no toilet.
There's a much wider and fresher and better conserved food in japanese convenience stores. Zabkas are always understaffed and it shows.
They are just Japanese cherry blossom in Poland anyways.
Many trees of the same family are also stunning in bloom but the Japanese cherry blossom is celebrated not only for its beauty, but also for the fleeting nature of it.
I'm not sure how that translates as the tree is moved to a different climate where it doesn't belong.
Sendai/Tahika have extremely similar weather to large parts of central Europe.