Sakura

Last Friday saw me head into Tokyo to see the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) - which was reported to be in full swing.


I'd heard that there was a large park in Shinjuku - Shinjuku Gyoen - which was pretty reknowned for its sakura. There were a few other possible places I could have gone, but I was also planning on walking from Shinjuku down through Harajuku to Shibuya, so this one seemed pretty good.


I had stopped off and bought the makings of a picnic at the huge Seibu department store in Ikebukuro (where the train from Chichibu terminates in Tokyo) and was pretty hungry by the time I got to the park. The photo above is the grove where I had my lunch. The trees here were very old and very large, and every time a gust of wind blew, it would snow flower petals. Really quite otherworldly...


Of course, I wasn't the only person who had the brilliant idea of heading to the park for a spot of hanami on a gorgeous spring day. Luckily though I'd come in one of the less prominent entrances to the park, so that grove was much quieter than the insanity going on over the other side of the park - but I'll save that for tomorrow's blog entry. Lots of kids gathering bags of petals, and just being kids.


Though of course, there will always be some that are totally focussed on their own worlds...


Rubik's Cube was completely uninterested in the spectacle. His father was desperate to get a photo of himself amidst the blossom, and at one point after failing to his attention, dad came up and hung his expensive digital SLR around the boys neck and went over to where he wanted to be photographed. The kid didnt flinch - just kept on going with the cube...


The petals on the ground were amazing - gusts of wind would blow them like snow, into drifts and piles against tree roots, picnickers, or any other stationary thing. you could literally see the gusts of wind ripple across the ground, stirring up the fallen blossom.

And being spring, of course the other trees weren't just sitting still. The momiji (japanese maple) that are my favourite, and which I have seen go through the fabulous colour changes of autumn before losing their leaves, have sprouted vibrant new growth too.


There were other unusual flowers hiding amongst the trees too...


I'll continue the story tomorrow, in which I discover that the other half of the park is somewhat more populous, and continue on my way down to Shibuya.