Sakura

The arrival of the cherry blossom, or sakura, is a big deal in Japan. We arrived in Tokyo at the start of April, which was pretty much the height of the blossom. Unfortunately, since we arrived most days have been cold and rainy, with only occasional nice weather to go out and see them. At the time I'm writing this, only a few blossoms are clinging on. That said, we did see quite a few.

The picture above and below is the Joshinji temple, near our flat. Like many temples, its grounds have many cherry trees, making it quite spectacular at the time of year.

Ueno Park is famous for its Sakura trail, which is a circuit passing beneath many cherry trees. It's also so popular that the authorities have implemented a two-lane traffic managment system to handle all the visitors. We passed through there our first weekend in town but it was way too busy. The picture above is from the lake in the park.

The Meguro river is lined with cherry trees, and it's generally a nice area. When we went there the blossom was already on the way out, but it was still very pretty.

This marks the point where I joined the club of people taking pictures of flowers with totally over-powered cameras.

While not as insane as at Ueno the previous week, there were still crowds in places. (Ingrid made me include this picture, not sure why...)