2014/04/07 - Tokyo Report
byscott

Thecherry blossom season is really starting to come to a close aroundTokyo andKyoto now with petals falling around most of the major sites across both cities. The flowers around Tokyo were already starting to fall during our visitlast Friday and were in danger of being damaged by bad weather over the weekend. Luckily, it seems to not have been as bad as I was expecting.

Ueno Park

My first stop this morning was toUeno Park where the cherry trees are typically a little bit ahead of the rest of the city.On Friday the petals were already falling freely, so I was a little surprised to find that the branches weren't completely barren around the main cherry blossom tunnel yet. The majority of the trees were beyond peak though and their green leaves were starting to come out.

The situation further down at Shinobazu Pond was much better this morning. The trees down by the pond are a little behind the park's main cherry blossom tunnel and still had a good number of blossoms left on the branches.

Shinjuku Gyoen

When we visitedShinjuku Gyoen lastWednesday the blossoms were at the peak of the peak. Since then the petals have been falling in droves around the park especially around the garden's large central lawns. It was far from uniform though, and while some areas had trees that were beyond peak, other areas had significant numbers of nice enough looking trees. In addition, theSomei Yoshino trees were still in prime condition for the occasional cherry blossom storm (hanafubuki), a favorite part of the end of the cherry blossom season.

As we've mentioned before,Shinjuku Gyoen has a wide variety oflate blooming cherry trees. Many of these were just beginning to open today, and should prolong the season around the gardens as they continue to open over the coming weeks.

Showa Kinen Koen

My final destination today was a revisit to Showa Kinen Koen, a large city park near Tachikawa Station outside central Tokyo. When I stopped bylast week, the 1500 cherry trees planted around the grounds were still approaching full bloom. Since then the blossoms have peaked and are currently at their best around the park and should remain nice for several more days. And with a good weather forecast for the next few days, it seems that there's no better time to visit the park.

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