Cherry Blossom Fever

A week after arrving in Tokyo, I noticed some cherry blossoms were starting to unfurl. So I grabbed my camera and headed to the Imperial Palace East Garden. I had read in the guidebooks that this was a good spot to view the cherry blossoms. I was stuffed by the time I had walked 40 mins to get there so I took the lazy otpion and just skirted around the base of the gardens and avoided any uphill paths. I took a few pohtos of the tiny blossoms that had started sprining open and then headed back home.

I showed Chris my efforts and he just laughed. Not only were these blossoms barely blooming but they were plum blossoms, not cherry blossoms! D'oh! He also suggested that instead of walking the 9km round trip to the gardens I should take a look out the window.

Little did I realise, we are staying in one of the most popular cherry blossom viewing areas in central Tokyo.
These are some of the amazing blossoms outside my window.

 And this is the restaurant downstairs which is booked out solid during the cherry blossom season.

Every day I walk around this area and people are absolutely mad for the cherry blossoms. There are people constantly taking photos of themselves under the trees. Office workers, tradesmen, grannies, mums with prams, the whole of Japan is in love with the stuff.

 People take picnics to the parks and sit under the trees with their friends and families, they call these blossom viewing parties Hanami and the cherry blossoms themselves are called Sakura.

 They also have sakura flavoured drinks, ice-cream, biscuits and all kinds of stuff. The stores are all decorated with sakura and there are free concerts in the parks and our local train station had a harpist and a guy playing some Japanese instruments.

Another great place we checked out was the canal area near Naka-meguro. It was absolutely stunning and there were great food stalls and drinks along the way.

I also headed back to the palace gardens and actually made it up the hill to the more extensive blossom area. This is where I found the sakura and the ume (plum blossoms) in full bloom.

You can also take tours to some of the best Sakura viewing spots around the country. Just don't forget to take your dogs out for a walk in their pram and their best outfits. Its what all the cool kids do.