With hindsight, I'm not really sure how my brain decided that visiting one of Tokyo's busiest parks, on Sunday, would be a good idea. Shinjuku Gyouen is about 60 hectares of gardens, lakes and people, in the middle of Shinjuku.
My reason for heading to Shinjuku was to visit my favourite (and original) bookstore, Kinokuniya, in search of a particular book. Somehow, it occurred to me that since I was in Shinjuku, I might as well do the park...
Shinjuku was the part of town where I spent much of my time when I first came to Tokyo as a student in the 1980s. I attended Japanese language classes on the western side of the station and eating and shopping on the eastern side. When I say shopping, I mean books. At Kinokuniya. For a student whose experiences of bookshops until 1984 had basically been a QBD or similar, a nine-storey shop of books, books and books was quite something. I've been known to spend hours just in the politics/foreign policy section on the third floor.
But the bookshop today was after the park perambulations...
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| Finery |
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| Trunks |
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| Reflected |
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| Up and ... |
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| Oops. |
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| Cluster |
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| Branching |
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| Weeping |
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| Not just cherries |
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| Lake view |
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| Looking up |
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| The wisteria is on its way... |
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| Quirky |
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| All the pinks |
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| All the petals |
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| Bunches |
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| Cascade |
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| More lake views |
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| Prize for persistence, growing out of a sawn trunk |
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| More pinks |
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| Top topiary |
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| Meeting the lake |
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| Picnic |
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| Pink against the white |
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| Multi-layered |
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| Count the petals |
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| Crepe-like |
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| Reaching down |
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| Burst |
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| Pink photobombs |
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| Peoples |
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| Whichever direction you look |
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| Commemorative pic |
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| Maples |
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| A well-earned... |
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| I made it to the bookshop, eventually |
So glad I went. Whereas many of the blossoms around other parts of Tokyo have just about had their time, there were some marvellous specimens alive and thriving in the park.
Can one ever get enough blossoms? I think not.
[Camera : Canon EOS M5, 1.40pm-2.35pm, iPhone6s, 2.42pm, 7.09pm; 8 April 2018]
*And a healthy 11,000 steps into the bargain, 70+ pics
