...all the pink (and white, and blue...)
Sakura...cherry blossoms...if ever there was a symbol of Japan, along with Mt Fuji and temples, sakura sits along side them. People plan their visits around them, guessing just when during March and April they might blossom. Certainly, when I first came to Japan in the 1980s, early April was the usual call. In more recent times it has been the second half of March--they need the warmth to blossom, I'll leave it to you to join the climate change dots...
Of course, the last three years or so have seen restrictions on the traditional 'hanami' or 'flower-viewing' gatherings. This year, restrictions have eased somewhat, but the weather has not been in our favour. The peak viewing has been over the last three days or so (it is truly a brief window of time to see them in their full splendour) but alas, cloudy, overcast rain at times, wind at others. The temperature has been up and down too, so that initial warm push was followed by a sudden drop to the low teens...it is that time of year but it is also a little confused...
Anyway, the blossoms are blooming all over the city. It is just a question of where to go...preferably without the crowds.
As it happens, I am completing another research project which involves walking the 277km of the so-called Musashino no Michi, a network of 21 walking courses throughout suburban and outer Tokyo...far from the madding crowds, mostly.
It has been a revelation on several levels, (and there is a book to follow, and maybe a photographic element of some sort), particularly, as I have been walking over the last four or five months, as to just how potentially lovely sakura viewing spots there might be.
So this evening, I went to one of them, not far from home, a part of the Shakujii River course, at Naka Itabashi, just a few stops down the line, but until this project, not a place I had had reason to get off at previously.
So off I went. Still no sun unfortunately, but the local neighbourhood committee has put in lights and made it well, different. Quite a change from the usual. And not too crowded.
Here are some pics.
There might be just a few days left, we'll see how we go. But my favourite sakura experience, it has to be said, remains one from my student days. Way back, mum came to visit in Spring, aiming for a bit of cherry blossom viewing. Turned out we missed the best of Tokyo by a couple of days so we high-tailed it up the coast to Sendai, by shinkansen. A bit indulgent perhaps but well worth it. The trees were in full bloom but a colder day meant the trees were shrouded in fog. A really unusual sight, and one we still talk about. And I still have the pics!
Today's pics on the Lumix 99D, 14-140mm.
