Hanami

Barely has it arrived last week, it is almost over again: this year’s hanami season. The Japanese manage to take all the excitement of koyo – autumn colours – and yet raise it up a notch or two, which is understandable, after all, hanami takes only one week compared to the several of koyo. pink cherry blossoms

Once again, the masses are flocking to Kyoto to view the cherry blossoms and to take what seems like thousands of pictures. The blooming cherries are everywhere, and everywhere there are groups of people, sitting under them, eating and drinking. I went to Maruyama Park yesterday, and it had a beergarden kind of feeling with all the food stalls and places selling beer. The cherry blossoms the park was full of were nice indeed, especially the large “weeping” cherry in the middle, but altogether I found it too noisy and crowded for my taste, so I did not stay long.

Anyway, when in Japan… Here are a few of the pictures I took:

cherry blossoms in front of a stone lanterncherry trees at kamogawa rivercherry blossoms at kurodani graveyardboat trip for hanamicherry trees at chion-in