Bloomin' Marvellous

I know I said I wouldn't do blossom watch this year because it made me feel the passing of time too much. Well, you know what, with the recent disaster I feel very privileged to be having time still pass for me at all, so get ready for a cherry petal overload.

The blossom season turned out to be a pretty brilliant one in Tokyo. They stayed out for almost two weeks. And the poor flowers really didn't have it easy - they got battered by gales, rained on a couple of times, endured a fair dose of radiation, and got shaken by hundreds of aftershocks. Yet they pulled out all the stops to give us a bit of cheer.







For Japanese people, cherry blossom is all about rolling out the plastic mats, sitting under some big ol' trees and getting drunk with some friends. There's a lot to be said for that as a national custom.



Taking a boat out a lake is another popular way to get a good view of the trees.




I'm lucky enough to have a 10-minute walk from work along a road called 'Sakura-dori'. It makes the daily trudge a lot more pleasant.



This is a little cherry-unrelated, but it just struck me as a particularly Japanese scene.





I enjoyed hanging out with some friends, making good conversation, drinking a cool beer and eating some nice food as cherry blossoms fell gently around us. But I also really enjoyed getting up really early to take some walks around the city's famous viewing spots before most other people were up.












Getting up early to do some blossom watching before the crowds is a great chance to see some fellow eccentrics at their best. To wit: some grannies stretching for some serious power walking. (We are right in the centre of the city here, not at the foot of Mount Everest???)


Or this kind woman who didn't want to disturb her neighbours as she learned to play the trombone. Squeaky scales was an unusual accompaniment to my early-morning walk, but not that bad.

You can enjoy cherry blossom viewing as much in the late night as in the early morning. By evening, people are usually pretty wasted so the night time tends to be quite a different vibe. This year, though, the power saving means the trees weren't lit up. We had to really on the moon instead. It made it all much more atmospheric.