While Ueno Park (left) is the conventional one for people to stroll through, my two favorite Sakura viewing sites are Shinjuku Park and Jindaiji Botanical Garden. The first is easy to find, a ten minute walk from Shinjuku Station, or even closer from a couple of Marunouchi Subway stops. Although only ten miles outside of Tokyo, the latter is an adventure, for it takes a train or two, plus bus, to get there. Best to ask your concierge for directions.
Shinjuku Park covers 145 acres (a little more than two miles if you wish to walk the periphery), with hordes of people, but not distractingly so. So let me show you some cherry blossoms:
But these photos are enhanced if something else is happening, so here is one with a bird and a photographer in the background:
Or a mother photographing her children (note my shadow):
But back to standard Sakura shots:
Note that this is not quite the peak of blossoming. What has happened is that these flowers began blooming on March 20, then it suddenly got cold, and stayed chilly. Thus, a few Sakura species stopped blooming:
By the time this tree is fully adorned, the petals from most of the others will be gone.
It is not only parks that have cherry blossoms. Whole sections of most Japanese cities and mountains have them too. Here, from a taxi:
At Shibuya Station, where there is Hachi:
After two trains, we went to Parco to purchase our bento lunch for Jindai Botanical Garden. According to the records, Shinjuku Park and Jindai are the only two official governmental botanical gardens in Tokyo. There are 100,000 trees and bushes of 4,500 species, so something is almost always blooming. Our lunch:
Mystery woman then took my photo next to Pearl's statue:
Close by are chimes that regularly play angelic music:
And next door is a greenhouse with interesting plants:
The desert plants were special:
Even orchids in the desert. Plus you can purchase Sakura plants;
We finally returned to the New Sanno Hotel, where we found some take-out food from one of those convenience stores, for there was a microwave oven on our floor:
We finally returned to the New Sanno Hotel, where we found some take-out food from one of those convenience stores, for there was a microwave oven on our floor:
Another great Sakura day in Japan. Tomorrow, on to Sendai.
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