Tokyo: Petals Falling

A day on from yesterday's visit to Mount Yoshino in Nara Prefecture, today I was back in Tokyo for a late season look at two of the city's most popular parks. With the period of best viewing now already several days behind us, I wasn't surprised to find the Somei Yoshino - the most common cherry blossom variety - looking quite subdued and even unattractive overall, although some lovely patches can still be found here and there in isolation. What remains is likely to be decimated by the rain tonight and on Sunday.

In areas with a mix of different species meanwhile, the moment for later blooming varieties to shine has arrived with many at or approaching full bloom while others are just getting started, providing attractive scenery for a couple more weeks.

My first visit of the day was to Shinjuku Gyoen, a huge open space boasting many different types of cherry blossom trees spread across varied and beautifully landscaped grounds. Here, the Somei Yoshino blossoms had already visibly thinned out along the park's main grassy stretch, but attractive scenes still persisted by the edge of its central pond.

The emerging stars of the show here however were the later blooming varieties, particularly Ichiyo, known for its heavy, 20 petaled blossoms with a light pink hue already at or approaching full bloom, and Kanzan with its 30-50 petals and more intensely pink color just beginning to open.

For my second and final stop, I returned once again to Ueno Park to rather less attractive scenes. Here, only a light scattering of blossoms remained along the main avenue, fading away to almost nothing towards the southern end. Things were just slightly better around the Shinobazu Pond, although visibly past their peak.

For evening visitors to the park, illuminations will continue around the pond area from 17:00 to 22:00 until April 13.