Hanami

I thought this might be a hanami-free year, but I managed to go cherry blossom viewing in Shinjuku Gyoen, my favourite park in Tokyo, last week with a friend. It was too chilly to set up a picnic so this was just a walk-by hanami, but I'm glad I got the chance to see some pretty blossoms outside of my own neighborhood. I'll present some of the pictures from the day without comment, but keep your eyes peeled for public napping, lots of posing, a man not interested in the flowers (or his girlfriend) so much as a nice pair of legs, a hanami-ing turtle, and a girl livening up a snapshot with a confetti-toss of sakura petals.

See more pictures of Shinjuku Gyoen (from today's and previous visits) here, and more sakura pictures here.

Comments

[kat]

beautiful photos!

[Tamara]

I'm visiting Japan in about three weeks, but all these blossoms will be gone by then :( At least I can live vicariously through you....

LOLs about the legs. What is she wearing? A metallic pink asymmetrical dress thing with matching bag? To be honest, I'd stare too, and I'm a straight female.

[joeinvegas]

Wow - is it fragrant as well as visually beautiful?

[Tone]

I was in Japan for the first time for 2 weeks - left a week ago.... what a wonderful place .. reliving it all through blogs such as yours, which is excellent.. found it looking for a recipe :-)

[Amy]

Thanks Kat!

Tamara, if you hit northern Japan you might get to see the cherry blossoms. And if not, it's still a great time to come as all the trees will have new leaves and there will be lots of other flowers.
She's wearing a pink leopard print coat and it looks asymmetrical but it's that one side of the coat was flapping in the wind, thus exposing more leg, thus increasing the stares. She was the flashiest member of a group of pretty Russian ladies and was getting a lot of attention.

Joe, most sakura don't have a fragrance. A few do but it's really subtle and more of a green and foresty than a floral smell.

Thanks Tone!

[Lilian]

I got inspired with the pics you posted earlier of sakura i added one more cherry tree in our garden so we now have 2. The 1st one is 5 yrs old and it gave us about 3 fruits last year..lol i will try to take pics of the flowers once it starts blooming...thx for the nice pictures

[yamaonna]

beautiful pictures!

[renaissance costumes]

wow... I'm kinda speechless on how beautiful that place is. I'm really jealous. I really hope I could go there.. Phew...Such beauty.

[Lauren Dunn]

wonderfully exquisite. you are very fortunate to see such beauty every year

[Japan Australia]

Wow!! Some great pictures there. I really miss Japan and especially things like hanami.

[japanese kanji]

Wonderful pics, it's easy to see why the Japanese make such an event out of the sakura zensen.
Keep up the nice work on the blog!

[Maninas]

Looks breathtaking!

[renaissance dresses]

Really really lovely.. I really wish I could go there.. Phew

[medieval dress]

This is truly magical!

[cleawalford]

thanks for the wonderful photos of the cherry blossoms.

[Jen]

pictures of cherry blossoms always makes my day!

[Amy]

Thanks for the comments! I feel lucky to be able to see this spectacle every year.

Lilian, good luck with your cherries! Sadly, most ornamental sakura don't produce fruit, or at least not very good fruit.