I traveled to Helsinki during the weekend to attend this Cherry Blossom Viewing event held at Roihuvuori!
I had never seen them before, so I was really excited to see Sakura Cherry Blossoms for the first time in my life, albeit not in Japan. But unfortunately, the peak of the full bloom was last weekend, during Mother's Day, 1 week before the official event. So this was really a bummer for us. We still managed to get some photos of smaller trees in bloom, but our intention was to capture the full beauty of the Path of Cherry Blossoms. I guess we have to take a raincheck on this till we get the chance next year in Japan!
We took a bus out of Helsinki City central towards the 'outskirts' where nature is, at Roihuvuori. There was relatively good warm weather today, slightly too sunny for my liking, but good nonetheless.
It was a really popular event, and it was evident once we saw the huge crowds around.
I used to attend alot of Anime Festivals and Japanese Matsuris in Singapore around 2-3 years back, but I haven't been going to much recently. I still attend the Anime Festival, but in the capacity of an Organiser, not really as an event-goer. So this was rather nostalgic. You can see from the dressing it's definitely a Japanese Festival!
This is the part of the park where the Full Bloom was supposed to be. You can still see a speck of pink, but the green has overwhelmed it too much by now. What a pity.
All the pink is scattered around the floor now...
The organisers did have some way smaller trees planted around that still had full bloomed Sakuras. I'm not sure if they are new additions, and how they managed to last longer than the bigger trees though.
There were many bees circling around the flowers! Anyone knows the differences between the White and Pink flowers?
Just near the stage! It was a really sunny day, I could hardly open my eyes!
There are some performances scheduled on stage. This Para-Para dance segment caught my attention!
There was one tree in the middle of the event grounds that still had some bloom! It seems that the white ones last a little longer? I tried to take an artistic shot with that smaller tree. Everyone was queuing up to snap photos here.
There were also many stands around that sold Japanese food and snacks, like Curry Rice, Cup noodles, Melon Soda. I was anticipating Karaage, but none of the shops here had them for sale.
slight pink shade left in the Trees
Even though the Sakura was past its full bloom, it was still a really lively event. And probably the most people I have seen in quite awhile in Finland. I have to start planning to see the real deal next year in Japan!
I left rather early, and headed to somewhere else to have some fun. Check out my next post! :D
!steemitworldmap 60.195817 lat 25.048214 long Cherry Blossoms in Finland d3scr
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