You never know where a drive or walk will take you in Tokyo. While out shopping the other day my wife and I decided to take a long route home. As we approached a river, the Minamiasakawa, we were treated to rows of sakura trees in full bloom. Immediately we decided to park the car and go for a walk under the blooming trees.
In Japan viewing the blooming sakura trees is an annual tradition called "Hanami" flower viewing. It is nationwide event that involves walking among the trees or setting up a tarp and having a picnic under the trees, often times while enjoying some beer or sake. It unofficially is the event that signals the beginning of spring.
We started our walk about 1km from our destination, the Minamiasakawa bridge.
Our route was due to parking. There isn't much parking around so we had to find a parking space down stream. It was actually the perfect starting point though because as you near the bridge the trees get denser, building up to a more picturesque scene.
We crossed over a bridge because it seemed the other side of the river bank had more trees to walk under.
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On the other side we were treated to this dream-like sakura canopy.
You will often see these trees growing towards water sources, almost like they are reaching out for water.
These branches were cool. They were like strings with balls of flowers at the ends.
The clouds parted and let the sun through as we neared the bridge.
Just ahead the bridge came into view.
Having a look back put the majesty of it all into perspective.
Making our way up the stairs to the bridge deck we found a beautiful structure of granite with an interesting red paved road. I don't know what, if anything, the red pavement symbolizes.
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The views from the bridge were nice, but I think I preferred being down among the trees.
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Crossing over the the other side of the bridge we were treated to a rare sight. It was a multi-colored sakura tree!
In addition to being multi-colored the two different branches were almost like two different trees with one side being hot pink and the other white with sporadic pink. It was an incredible specimen!
A close up view of the blossoms.
These trees are some sort of hybrid that produce flowers with random patches of different shades of pink.
I found one of these last year in front of a shop in Kunitachi and wrote about it here.
I went back to the bridge to get a picture of the tree from above and ended up getting some other nice shots too.
Then it was time to head back to the car from the other side of the river.
We passed by two beautiful peach trees with different shades of pink further down the path.
The blossoms of peach trees are bigger than sakura with peach blossoms having many more petals than a sakura.
As we neared our parking spot my wife pointed out the trees that had no blossoms had a different treat.
Tiny plums, ume. These trees had already bloomed and are now growing their fruits. Spring is here!
If you want to visit this portion of the Asakawa it's just over an hour west of Shinjuku on the Chuo line.
It's also very close to Mt. Takao which I have written about here. You can visit both locations easily in one day.
Next week I'll take you to my favorite hanami spot, the Meguro river.
Until then, thanks for reading!
