Spring in Tokyo

When we returned to Tokyo it was early April, which is officially cherry blossom time. We decided to head over to Ueno Park, Tokyo's most famous park, to see if there were any flowers. At the entrance to the park I was greeted by this cherry tree :)

Ueno Park has many attractions, including Tokyo Zoo, a few museums, and many temples and shrines. Since this was a weekend, most temples had food stands set up along the walk leading up to the main shrine.
Ueno Park's main alley is lined with cherry trees, and there were hordes of people walking around taking in the year's first flowers.
After Ueno Park, we decided to go for a walk to Senso-ji Temple. We're starting to walk around Tokyo more as we begin to understand the different neighborhoods and where they are in relation to each other. We found ourselves back on the cooking supplies street, but for the first time noticed these adorable tea cup balconies.
The buds on the trees at Senso-ji weren't in bloom yet, but everything was bright and green compared to our first visit earlier in the year.
One day before work, we also visited the Imperial Palace (which is walking distance from my office), to check out the blossoms there.
The palace itself is hidden deep in the park and far from view, and protected by these impressive 16th Century walls and moats. The grounds were the site of the Edo Castle of the shoguns from 1619 to 1868. Unfortunately, the entire palace grounds were destroyed (along with most of Tokyo) during either the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and by bombing during WWII. The current structures were rebuilt in 1968.
The trees around the grounds were also in bloom.

We could see beautiful trees of the white cherry blossom variety...

... and the pink.

None of the buildings are accessible to the public; this was the closest we could get to a random structure on the grounds. It's probably some storage hut far from the Imperial palace itself.

We also visited the Shinjuku Imperial Gardens. These gardens originally belonged to a nobleman, before being taken over by the emperor and then opened to the public in 1949. These gardens were much nicer than the Imperial Gardens.

All Japanese ponds are either teeming with fish or turtles (or both).

Lots of people were having picnics under the blooming trees. Here in Japan, no one uses a picnic blanket, though. Everyone sits on plastic tarps, which don't look too comfortable. At this park, people are sitting on grass at least; in Ueno, they were sitting on paved roads. They're all drunk, of course.
This is a typical sight in Japan: A girl dressed out in extravagant fashion, often not weather appropriate or comfortable. Fashion comes way before comfort in Japan. To top off the outfit, she's wearing a surgical mask (probably to protect her from the pollen, or she has a cold). Creepy.