Japan

81-year-old Sachiko Asano travelled 13,679km to Africa to see jacaranda trees in bloom, one of hundreds of Japanese inspired by a culture of flower-viewing to make the trek every year. “It was a long trip, but I wanted to come and see the jacarandas while I still can,” said the resident of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido after a two-day tour of Pretoria, known as the “Jacaranda City” for its eruption of purple and blue in the southern hemisphere spring. Every October hundreds of …