It's the full bloom date for cherry trees in Tokyo. Every year, JMB forecasts the full bloom date for every district in Japan; so people can shuffle their plans and choose a date for "cherry blossom viewing" or "a cherry blossom appreication party."
My choice of viewing area was Kanda-gawa (Kanda River or "神田川"). I hopped on a Tokyo Metro Yurakucho line train and got off at the Edogawa-bashi station in the late morning.
Truly, it was super beautiful.
Cherry Blossom viewing is "the ultimate" flower viewing or "hanami (花見）". When people say "hanami," it means "cherry blossom viewing." There's a walkway on both sides of the river with several bridges over it. Very convenient for appreciating cherry blossoms and making a trip back to the starting point.
Many people enjoy picnic with sake under a cherry tree. Many more walk along Kanda River to enjoy cherry blossom from different angles.
Along Kanda River and next to "Basho-an" and famous "Chinzan-so," there's "Eisei Bunko" museum or "永青文庫", some of its collection such as Japanese armors and swords were shown at Asian Art Museum in San Francisco a couple of years ago.
Kanda River's cherry tree type is "Somei Yoshino (染井吉野), representative of a cherry tree. Flowers of this kind bloom in globular, and flowers in one ball bloom all together this year.
Carps and turtles live in swiftly flowing Kanda River. which used to overrun. Today, overflows will be led to a huge underground duct system to prevent flood.
Hanami will span only a week at most. If there's a windy day, cherry trees shed their flowers at once, leaving naked stems and twigs...
P.S. 3/30/13
Cherry flowers have been holding amazingly well.
Temperature has dropped since the 23rd, and we had no major rains or windy days in Tokyo. Today, people are enjoying "sakura fubuki, or cherry flower storm" in which petals are falling softly like a rain, even though there's no slightest breeze. Cherry petal falling reminds me of Gilda's song of cry in Rigoletto's quartet. Pathways underneath have become as if they were lined with pink carpet. Cheery blossom is beautiful from beginning to the end...
