Imagine that a friend came to Japan and said,
「日本で桜も見たい。」.
Another said,
「日本で桜は見たい。」.
How do you find they differ?
When you’d like to communicate to others your hope that you want to see cherry blossoms, the simplest statements may be the following four sentences:
「桜が見たい。」
「桜を見たい。」
「桜も見たい。」
「桜は見たい。」
Imagine that you ask a friend what they want to see or do in Japan, and they answer you that they want to see cherry blossoms.
「日本で何が見たい？」
「桜が見たい。」 or 「桜を見たい。」
will be the plainest answers.
「が」 and 「を」 are used simply to show the object of the verb「見たい」. 桜 is the object.
The listener will understand that the speaker would like to see cherry blossoms. No additional information is given in both statements.
What is the difference between 「が」 and 「を」 in this case? Almost no difference.
Still, there’s a structural difference in them.
「桜が見たい」 says that cherry blossoms are the things the speaker wants to see.
Whereas 「桜を見たい」 says that seeing cherry blossoms is the thing the speaker wants to do.
When the speaker answers you, 「桜も見たい」, he/she says that cherry blossoms (or seeing them) are among some of things that he/she wants to see (or do).
That is, cherry blossoms are in the list of (several) things of interest.
What about 「桜は見たい」?
When a friend asks you if you’d like to see cherry blossoms, 「桜は見たい」 is the plainest answer.
「桜は見たい？」
Would you like to see cherry blossoms?
「桜は見たい。」
Yes, I would.
No more information is added in the statement.
However, if the friend asks you what you’d like to see and you answer 「桜は見たい」, then you tell that cherry blossoms are on your list of priorities.
「は」 is used for showing a priority; 「も」 is for giving an example.
「日本でまず桜が見たい。次に富士山が見たい。箱根にも行って黒玉子を食べてみたい。銀座で寿司は食べてみたいが、鰻は食べなくてもいいや。それとアメ横も豊洲の魚市場も見てみたい。それでも時間があれば秋葉原には行きたい。」
（にほんで まず さくらが みたい。つぎに ふじさんが みたい。はこねにも いって くろたまごを たべて みたい。ぎんざで すしは たべて みたいが、うなぎは たべなくても いいや。それと アメよこも とよすの うおいちばも みて みたい。それでも じかんが あれば あきはばらには いきたい。）
I’d like to see cherry blossoms in Japan first. Next, I’d like to see Mt. Fuji. Also, I wish to go around Hakone and try the black egg. In Ginza, sushi is on my list, but I could give up unagi. Besides, I wish I could take a look at Ame-Yoko and the fish market in Toyosu. If I still had time after that, Akihabara could be a high priority.
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