Kyoto: Still Closed

Hot on the heels of Cassie's report yesterday from Tokyo, where buds were poised to open in Shinjuku Gyoen and just beginning to bloom at Ueno Park, I spent today in Kyoto to see how things were progressing at three of the city's most popular viewing spots.

This year, Kyoto's cherry blossom trees appear to be running a few days later than those in the capital, with the only flowers so far on display coming from earlier blooming varieties and the window for best viewing likely to start around April 4.

My first visit of the day was at Maruyama Park, located adjacent to Yasaka Shrine. Here the gap with Tokyo was the most pronounced, with Somei Yoshino trees - the most common variety of cherry blossom tree - still looking very sparse and young without a flower in sight.

Typically, the picture was quite different for earlier blooming varieties like the park's large and centrally placed weeping cherry blossom tree, which had already started to open its blossoms. Overall, I would expect the peak viewing experience here to begin around the end of next week.

A stretch of preserved railtrack leading down towards the Okazaki Canal, the Keage Incline turns into a popular draw every year due to the cherry blossom trees lining its gentle slope. Today, the trees appeared a day or two ahead of those at Maruyama Park, however due to the absence of earlier blooming varieties overall the area looked quite bare with no flowers on display.

Along the Okazaki Canal the picture was very similar, with even the earlier blooming weeping cherry blossom trees looking completely bare. At both sites, I would expect the best experience to begin in the second half of next week.

For my last stop of the day, I took a stroll along the Philosopher's Walk - a pleasant pedestrianized route running about two kilometers alongside a narrow canal in the city's Higashiyama District. Here the picture was just a little more varied, with a patch of trees around the middle section looking to be a day or two ahead of the rest, while overall the area appeared similar to the Keage Incline, with peak viewing likely to arrive around the latter half of next week.