Japanese is T+P. It's often said that English is S+V+O, while Japanese is S+O+V. Sometimes it happens to be that way. Then how do you explain this sentence? “Cherry blossoms 'wa' beautiful.” This is correct Japanese. It's not an omission. This sentence has no verb 😮 S+V+O is a Western way of thinking. You shouldn't force it onto Japanese. Japanese is Topic + Predicate. T (topic, theme) + P (predicate) Once you understand this, sentences like “Tokyo 'wa' 3 o'clock.” “I 'wa' an eel.” make perfect sense. The foundation of Japanese is Topic + 'wa' + Predicate + (da, desu). “da” and “desu” are auxiliary verbs, not verbs. Furthermore, as in the example above, sentences can be formed without “da” or “desu”. Once you grasp this, you won't need to ask “What is 'wa'?”