Hanamic picnic at Kinuta Park

Night hanami at Kudanshita

After dinner sakura pic in Harajuku

Hanami with coworkers in Naka Meguro

At the river behind my apartment

When I came to Tokyo the first time in March 2018, it wasn’t quite cherry blossom season just yet. Sakura (cherry blossoms) is very hard to plan ahead of time. It comes and it goes very quickly. I was really excited to get to experience it this year. All of Japan rallies around it. Its almost like Christmas in the US. There’s lots of seasonal products: sakura lattes, sakura beer, sakura everything. I had never heard the word before but everyone started talking about hanami. It translates to “flower viewing.” Normally a Hanami is a picnic in the park below the sakura but it also be just a walk through them as well. Because its Japan, the picnic also involves a lot of drinking. I saw many people barely stumble into their taxi 🥴. The other new word I learned was yozakura: It means night sakura… yes Japanese has a special word for sakura at night😂. The night hanamis were really fun. Everyone just walks with their friends and a drink in their hand. Its really casual and really fun. Its pretty much all over now, but it was a great first season for me. Take a look at all the photos above.