Collaborative mapping for the cherry-blossom advance

The sakura zensen -- the line showing the northmost extent of cherry-blossom trees in bloom -- becomes a staple of news programmes around this time of year, as the populace waits for the chance to hit the local park with some beers and indulge in a bit of flower-gazing, that most quintessential of Japanese spring pastimes.

Since this is 2006 and everything must be done collaboratively, via the Web, and if possible involve cellphones, a group of Japanese companies have set up a site called Sakura Mapping that aims to construct a Google Earth-based map of the cherry blossom front line. If you have a GPS cellphone, sending a photo of some blossoms to maps@mapping.jp with the location info in the file header will update the project's Google Earth file; for non-GPS phones, you can enter an address or other information in the body of the email.

[Via K-Tai Watch (Japanese)]