A Stroll Through Jindai Botanical Gardens

Sorry for the delay. I usually try to update this once every few days but I bought a new camera (Canon EOS 7D bringing me to the wonderful world of dSLRs finally) and I was using my free time to try to get to know it a little bit better. It is an amazing camera (if I might say so myself) and I don’t think I even scratched the surface but I decided the best way to learn is by doing. So I picked up my camera, put on a polarizing filter, and made my way to the Jindai Botanical Gardens which happen to be pretty close to where I live.

Getting in costs 500 Yen per person and inside you find a nice, serene park complete with a greenhouse and a little pond. If you happen to be by the Jindaiji Temple, this is just a 2 minute walk from there. I also had the chance to try out some delicious handmade soba which the place is famous for. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took :)

There weren’t too many flowers outside this being winter and all but these ones caught my eye.

The small lake in the gardens. I am pretty sure it looks even more amazing in the spring and especially during the cherry blossom season.

A water lily from inside the greenhouse.

Handmade soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) with Tempura served outside next to the fire to keep the customers warm.

The Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are beautiful flowers native to parts of Southern and Eastern Asia. Apart from looking so pretty themselves, they have one interesting property. Their color changes based on the acidity/alkalinity of the soil they are planted in (for example from blue to pink). As the rains can change just that, these flowers are sought after during the rainy seasons in Japan. Some cities like Kamakura (鎌倉市) are particularly famous for their hydrangeas. I snapped this picture when I was in Roppongi of all places. On my way to the National Art Gallery/Museum I saw these hydrangeas in front of an apartment building and took their picture with my phone (sorry for the quality). I hope this year I will be able to visit Kamakura during the rainy season with my actual camera and take some close ups of these very beautiful flowers.

Ueno Park and the beautiful flowers

While most of the cherry blossoms are gone the Ueno Park still had a few trees that had an almost full load and there were tons of people who were out for “Ohanami” (お花見) – literally flower watching. I talked about this last year when I actually had the pleasure of joining them myself at Inokashira Park. The idea is sitting under a tree and enjoying an alcoholic beverage of sorts (beer, hard lemonade, different types of sake, whatever works for you…) while watching the flower petals slowly fall all around you. In the case of these people though since most of the flowers are gone except on two trees which actually had noone under them, I think the main goal was drinking…

If you happen to go by Ueno Park you may not be able to catch much of the cherry blossoms but there is a special garden open by the shrine. There is a little entrance fee (600 yen/about 6 dollars) but it is worth it. Some of the flowers are just so pretty and hard to find outside this special garden. I am putting some of the pictures of the flowers I took below. May be they can convince you to go :)

Cherry blossoms started to bloom!

This will be short since I need to wake up in 5 hours to catch a plane to the US but I just wanted to drop a line and mention how the cherry blossoms started to bloom in Tokyo. It was brutally cold on Friday and may be that will slow down the blooming but it has started… and it is pretty! I took this picture of the cherry blossom tree in front of the Secom SC building with my cell. If you happen to be in Tokyo watch out for the cherry blossoms next week. I think it will be the best time for going cherry blossom watching (お花見).

Golden Week is almost upon us...

There are flowers everywhere, the sun started to shine more often than before and the temperatures are lingering between 15 and 20 degrees Celcius. Yup, it's official - Spring is well on its way.

Golden Week, which takes place in the first week of May, is a series of consecutive one day long public holidays in Japan. For "lucky" years the first day of the 4 day long series occurs on a Monday making for a 9 day holiday (with pretty much everyone taking the Friday off either as a paid or unpaid day off). Unfortunately this year the first day falls on the worst possible day - a Saturday, cutting the holiday to only two days (Monday and Tuesday).

For me May is going to be a balancing act - a mixture of holidays and deadlines. I guess I will take it one step at a time... First target - Hakone （箱根）for the Golden Week (next weekend).