Tokyo: Just Opened

Yesterday, Japan's meteorological agency announced that the cherry blossoms started opening in Tokyo. The announcement came five days earlier than in the average year due to the fact that the past winter was considerably warmer than average.

Because the weather is forecast to remain relatively mild over the coming days, I estimate that the best viewing period in Tokyo will start around March 27 and then continue for a little over a week unless the petals are taken down prematurely by strong winds or rain.

Today I went to check the state of the cherry trees at three of Tokyo's popular hanami spots, Ueno Park, Koishikawa Korakuen and Shinjuku Gyoen. I was able to confirm that the trees were still at a very early stage of their blooming season.

Many cherry trees at Ueno Park have started opening scattered blossoms, but overall less than one percent of blossoms have opened so far, especially around Shinobazu Pond where some trees were still completely closed.

Evening illuminations at Ueno Park started yesterday and will be held daily between 17:00 and 20:00 through April 7. Numerous hanami parties were already going on below the mostly barren trees around noon today.

Koishikawa Korakuen is not only one of Tokyo's most beautiful traditional gardens, it is also a good spot for viewing cherry blossoms in the early stages of the season. This is because the garden features an attractive collection of weeping cherry trees which typically bloom a few days ahead of the more numerous Somei Yoshino variety.

Today, the central weeping cherry tree stood already in full bloom, a few days ahead of the other weeping cherries which were still short of reaching the halfway point to full bloom. Koishikawa Korakuen also features other types of cherry trees around its central pond and elsewhere. These trees, however, were still only just opening.

A large majority of cherry trees at Shinjuku Gyoen have only just opened their first blossoms and were generally still below the one percent mark. Like the trees in the rest of the city, I expect them to enter the best viewing period around mid next week. Shinjuku Gyoen is famous for having a large number of cherry tree varieties on its wide grounds. Among them are several early blooming varieties, including some weeping cherry trees that were already at full bloom today. A collection of majestic weeping cherries is located near the pond to the south of the French Garden.