Sakura, Again

When we arrived in Tokyo a year ago, the sakura season was, in theory, at its peak. The weather was kind of rubbish, so it was not possible to appreciate it to its fullest. We were lucky that it came a little earlier this year, and it peaked during our last week in town.

I have mentioned before that there is a temple, Joshinji, directly opposite our building. It is blessed with many cherry trees. We made a habit to cross the road and check it out in between bouts of packing. It was pretty great.

I have many photos which are basically duplicates of pictures taken a year ago in this same spot.

The sign says "Bunkyo Sakura Matsuri" which roughly means "Bunkyo Cherry Blossom Festival". (Bunkyo is the area where we live... eh lived.)

Anyway, part of the japanese tradition of sakura is "hanami" -- basically hanging out with family and/or friends eating and drinking under some cherry trees. Our last weekend in Tokyo coincided with the distract's officially sanctioned hanami where they closed the roads and all kinds of local organisations and businesses set up stands. We took a break from packing and went along.

That's the end of the Tokyo posts... next post will be about our (ongoing as I write this) visit to Kyushu.