Cherry Blossom Season in Japan

A few weeks ago it was cherry blossom season here, this is quite an event in Japan. The blossom (or “sakura“) lasts about 10days to 2 weeks, and during this time thousands of Japanese partake in “hanami” or cherry blossom viewing. This involves sitting under a tree and having a picnic and drinking lots of sake and beer it seems.

We went to Osaka castle on one day to see the sakura, but it was pretty cold so we didn`t stay long.
Did see some poor office workers sitting on their own though.
The junior people have to get there early and just sit around, saving the space till the more senior members turn up.

The Blossom is very beautiful.
The next day we went to Arashiyama in Kyoto, a very beautiful place with lots of great cherry blossom, and temples, etc. (well it is Kyoto!).
Finally we went to Maruyamakoen (??) a park in central Kyoto, where we saw thousands of people drinking and partying!
It was like Glastonbury!
Great fun, but we couldn`t stay long as there was no space to sit down or anything.

Related posts:

• Kyoto and the Geishas
• Hisashiburi (Long time no see)
• Maiko in Kyoto
• Some Pictures of Food From Kyoto Market