Hanami 2

Today, I had a chance to see more sakura.  First of all, hanami literally means "flower viewing" - hana means flower, in this case, the sakura flower.  It is an ancient Japanese tradition of going to view flowering sakura trees (although nowadays it is has a bit different emphasis - see below).

The sakura trees are all over the place.  Here are some from a street corner near Sakae (Hisaya odori to be exact):

 Some flowering roses and magnolia across the street:

 Really full magnolia tree near Sakae:

So, being in Sakae, I decided to walk to Tsuruma park which is supposed to be a good spot for sakura.
Some large sakura trees while walking to Tsuruma park:

And I finally got to the park and noticed what all the fuss was about.  Warning for those people that complain that there are never any people on my pictures - lots of people on these pictures! ;P

 There is basically a forest of sakura trees in the park.

 And due to the occasion, lots of street vendors selling food and other stuff:

 Here is another sakura forest a bit further into the park:

 The modern Japanese sakura viewing (hanami) tradition is basically gathering under the sakura trees on blue tarps and mostly drinking, eating and socializing.

   Hence this park was filled with younger people doing just that under the trees.

 I walked through the park to see if I can find different types of trees.

 Some of them were quite pretty.

 And you could see sakura trees all over the place.

 Here is a little area with quite nice trees:

 Closeup:

Here is a short video at that location - click on the video to view in 720p:

sakura-neko (sakura-cat)?  I have to show this to one of my lab members who loves cats.

 Some trees already had quite full bloom.

 Sakura near a lake:

 This place should have water in it at some point I think.

 Two types of magnolia - the farther one is a little pinkish like the sakura.

 This was the most beautiful tree that I found in the park - and looked quite old.  Lots of people were stopping by to take a picture with it.

 Alley of sakura:

 Even around the park were sakura trees:

 Another small park area with trees.  The lack of leaves makes the contrast between the dark bark and the lightly coloured sakura quite nice.

 Not really sakura related, but I passed by the entrance to the Nagoya Institute of Technology:

 Some sakura near a school:

 Closeup of the flowers - most of them are not really pink... just white with a hint of pink:

 Here is another tree in some small park/playground I passed by:

Yesterday I bought these 2 mochi in Fujigaoka - I ate the sakura one today - was delicious!