Sunday, April 11, 2010

Hanami at Showa memorial park

showa kinen hanami
The weather has been unpredictable in the last couple of weeks; it has been raining and cold most of the week, everybody has been cautiously planning for the weekend hanami or cherry blossom viewing. I visited the Showa memorial park with a weather forecast of cloudy/rain.

Showa kinen tachikawa gate
showa kinen entrance
showa kinen fountain
Showa memorial park, or showa kinen, was established in 1983 to commemorate the 50 anniversary of the Showa emperor. The park extends now to 163 hectares of beautifully maintained gardens, ponds and barbeque areas.

showa kinen sakura trees
showa kinen sakura
The sakura or cherry trees were at full blossom and the many families were enjoying the park by the traditional Japanese picnic under the cherry tree or hanami.

showa kinen open field
under the sakura trees
I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the open field area and the number of people enjoying the day.

showa kinen canal
showa kinen tulips
showa kinen flowers
The park has several flower areas a large pond and a canal.

showa kinen japanese garden
japanese garden
show kinen
There is also a beautiful Japanese garden area that, excluding the house under reparation, was just perfect.

cherry blossom
cherry blossom sakura
showa kinen park
sakura
But the star of the day was undoubtedly the cherry blossom, and fortunately the rain didn’t spoil the day.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love the pics of the Cherry Blossom... yeah, good that the weather was with you... the reality is however spring weather can always be unpredictable, and the Cherry Blossom season is always so short. Gotta make the most of it.