Tokyo: Just Opened

Following on from Raina's report from Kyoto yesterday, I spent today in Tokyo checking in on three of its most popular cherry blossom sites.

With many parts of the country experiencing unusually cold weather in the last few weeks and now a later-than-predicted initial opening of the blossoms, it's certainly been an strange season so far - but with temperatures on the rise and Tokyo announcing the official start of the season on Friday, I was keen to see just how things were progressing.

Despite some variation, all three sites had clearly moved on quite a bit since Raina's visit last week, and - although branches with lots of blooms are still the exception rather than the rule - seemed to be approaching a tipping point. I would expect all three to be nearing full bloom by the middle to end of this week, and with no major storms predicted the optimum viewing period should last well into the next.

My first stop of the day was at Shinjuku Gyoen - a large park near the capital's busiest station, known for its open spaces and many varieties of cherry blossom trees. In the kid's area and along the north shore of the lower pond, a few earlier-blossoming trees were already approaching or even just past full bloom, however for the Somei Yoshino variety making up the majority of the trees, it was still quite early days with mostly small, pink buds showing.

With less than 5% of blossoms already opened, I would expect the park to need at least two more days to reach full bloom, with the best viewing experience to begin around the weekend.

Next on my list was Ueno Park, another large public park located just a short walk from Ueno Station. At first glance the situation here seemed very similar to Shinjuku Gyoen, but as I made my way along the park's famous avenue lined with cherry blossom trees, I began to notice a lot more open buds making me think that the area is a day or two ahead, and poised to begin exploding into color.

Elsewhere, along the narrow spit dividing the park's large pond into three, the buds were clearly lagging behind, likely due to the slightly lower temperatures along the water's edge. Overall, I would expect the park to begin full bloom around mid-week.

I ended my day at Chidorigafuchi, a 700 meter walkway along the outside of a defensive moat that once belonged to Edo Castle. 'Here, the state of the blossoms was comparable to the ones at Ueno Park and already drawing packed crowds.

While the trees along the pathway itself were still at a relatively earlier stage, many of the trees on the moat's inside slope were already showing quite a lot of pink, although this had yet to turn into a thick canopy of blossoms. Here I again had the sense that the overall picture is likely to change quickly, with the best viewing period expected to begin within 2-3 days.