It doesn’t take a genius to know what’s the most famous flower in Japan he he… Sakura is indigenous to the Himalayas before distributed to parts of the world. What’s interesting for me is the flower actually not only exist in Japan. South Korea, China, even northern India has the flower. And I even swear I saw the *siblings* of Sakura in Vietnam and even parts of Indonesia – it really looked a like! And of course, US (Washington, Philly, you name it) actually also has the flower as presents from the Japanese government.
When we planned the trip to Japan about 6 months in advance – we carefully research the best time to go there; to ensure we catch Sakura at it’s best bloom. Well, that and also considering the approved work leave period. *Sigh* Unfortunately due to work constraint, it’s already predicted that we may only catch the early bloom but not the peak time :( Oh well…. Better luck next time.
Coming close to the trip timing, I’m a bit nervous cause it seems like the winter is being prolonged by mother nature. Global warming impact perhaps? The news said the spring will come late. Shoot. When we got to Japan, it is a bit colder than it should be. So unfortunately we didn’t catch Sakura when it’s in the fullest bloom. However, we did met quite a lot of glimpse of pink dots here and there.
In my mind – the ultimate picturesque scene is fully bloomed sakura trees all over the place, green grass, breeze air, and just perfect blue sky. So at the end of our trip, we went to Shinjuku Park – one of the big parks in Tokyo. People are already coming with their picnic mat and basket. And the park is so huge. But wait, where’s the Sakura bloom??? After going circling the park, THERE IS ONLY 1 SAKURA TREE FULLY BLOOMING. Plus the sky was so cloudy dark. Errr… Well, not exactly picturesque. But better than nothing :D
The funny thing is that because there’s only 1 tree that bloomed, everyone is gathering surrounding that small tree. Taking pictures in front of another. And there’s this couple that seems in their pre-wedding picture session. I thought, o how nice of them. I didn’t know Japanese people also like to take pre-wedding pictures like Indonesian. Then I heard “Kiri, kiri, ke kiri ya. Ayo senyum dikit. Ya!” Errr… It turned out the couple was indeed Indonesian! Talking about a country that’s suppose to be in poverty :D
Random picture, I met this really cute baby Japanese boy. For whatever reason, somehow the baby remind me of a duck he he…
It’s a very potentially romantic setting :D Gosh, really wished I could be there again with someone that I love and loves me back. Otherwise it’ll just be… unfortunate…Hopefully later on it’s > 80% tree bloomed with blue sky yaaa…
Besides in Shinjuku park, we also met Sakura & other spring flowers blooming in various places like Maruyama Park, Tokyo University, Ueno Zoo and along the road when we travel around Japan. Needless to say more, just see the pic! :)
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