Sakura Viewing - hanami 1

As I was already eluding to in previous posts... the sakura are starting to bloom. Slightly delayed due to the weather not being too nice. I think in about a week should be the peak - they don't last all that long.

Today, I went out with the intent of going to see some the sakura festival (sakura matsuri) in Fujigaoka (about 8km east of my place). I have never been there and noticed some advertisements of this festival this weekend so why not.

I left a little bit on the late side (1:30pm) but it was around 19C outside so quite nice. This crazy trip started off with me getting a weekend day pass at the subway station. Normally, you have to pay depending on how far you go (usually around 200-260yen around the town) but for 600yen, you can get an unlimited pass (only on a weekend day or holiday). So, if you make 1 stop along the way - it already is worth it. But, the danger of having a pass where you can get off at each station, is exactly, having the freedom of randomly getting off at any station!

So I set off from Imaike to Fujigaoka (all on the Higashiyama (yellow) subway line). The trip took around 20 mins. Fujigaoka is the last station on the Higashiyama line - I have never been that far to the east of Nagoya. About two stations before Fujigaoka, the subway comes out from underground and goes above ground. This was quite exciting - you can see the city when you travel since you are quite high above ground (although the city looks pretty much the same anywhere you are :P). Another interesting thing about Fujigaoka is that the LINMO train line starts there. I have to take that someday since I have never been on a magnetic train. But enough talking...

This was the first thing I saw when I got out of the station building.  Very pretty!
There was a stage set up - when I walked by, these two girls were performing:

 First, I walked around to get to know the area a bit.

 Granted, it looked quite like most of the city looks like.

 But there were many sakura trees along the streets.  And some cutely dressed girls:

 The trees are not in full bloom yet so still look quite bare:

 In a few places, tent stores were set up with food, drink, lotteries, and other items for sale:

 I bought some white paste (bean?) filled pancake at one of these places:

 It was tasty!

 Here you can see more of the tents and some kind of clock:

 Lots of people were walking around:

 More tents along this other road:

 To the left is a place where I got some sakura ice cream:

 ... tasty...

 The sakura trees were all over the place:

Here is a girl in a school uniform with a sakura coloured sweater crossing the street:

 I was hungry, so I got some takoyaki:

 ... and ate it in front of this fountain:

So, after I circled the whole festival area a few times,  I decided to move on.  The plan was to go to that canal I was biking by one day to check the situation there but having the unlimited use pass, I decided to get off at the Higashiyama Koen station to see where the main entrance to the zoo is (since I've never been there).  In front of the subway exit looked like this - some statue and you can see the Higashiyama tower in the background:

 And a street of sakura trees:

 And some other flowering bushes with an intense smell:

 Found the zoo entrance:

 Closeup of the sakura trees in front of the zoo:

 Not full bloom but getting there:

 Pretty:

 Looks more like spring (although winter also had a lot of flowering plants in Nagoya):

Then I looked at the zoo prices.  The zoo and botanical garden price was 700en and annual pass was 2000yen (around $22) so I bought the annual pass!  Wasn't expecting this but now I have an excuse to come more often (the zoo is quite close to the university).  I also got a free calendar.  Here is a pond near the entrance on the inside:

 With some turtles getting some sun:

 View from the main entrance - you can see the tower:

 Rose bushes:

 A canal with a nice sakura tree:

 Lots of people...

 and tons of sakura trees:

 And a tapir.  I didn't spend much time looking at the animals - have a year for that :P

 In this open area were tons of these blooming trees:

 Some with more flowers than others:

 Very pretty:

 Closeup:

 And some flamingos:

 The tower through the blossoms:

 Very nice and full tree.  There were quite a lot of varieties so some looked more full than others:

 There is a above ground train you can take all around the park:

 Some of the flowers were falling due to the wind - distinctive sakura with the heard shaped petals:

 It was also feeding time for seals:

 Who were quite good at grabbing thrown fish from the air (sakura seals!):

 Sakura camel?

 Here is a beautiful sakura tree with a slightly darker shade of colour:

 Along this lake where people used little row/petal boats on:

 Can you see the tower through the sakura?

 more white flowers:

 These had quite a dark colour:

 I am not sure if they are already finished or if they are supposed to look like this:

 And another different sakura tree:

 A rose garden - pretty empty at this time but I'm sure it will be quite nice in the summer:

 View from the rose garden:

 Then I entered the botanical gardens:

 Very old sakura with very little flowers:

 This variety was amazing - so full:

 densely packed:

 Big flowers:

 Rabbits from flowers:

 There were also some other flowering bushes:

 And magnolias:

 Some really old looking building with beautiful magnolia tree in front:

 Close up of the tree:

 Another different magnolia tree:

 Willow?

 Very few flowers on this tree:

 Another kind of magnolia:

 A flowering bush:

 Closeup:

 Some other flowering tree with small flowers:

 The exit from the botanical gardens:

Then I took the train back home.  It was an interesting, somewhat unexpected trip.

Near home (2 blocks away), there is this street with sakura trees along it - quite beautiful: