Protocol Snow

Spring is here at last! With spring comes not only pleasant weather and girls in shorts, but also tons of jealousy-inducing blog posts about cherry blossom season in Japan. I subscribe to lots of Japan blogs and it seems everybody’s having a great time with the sakura flowers and hanami parties. A couple of my life goals: to experience Chinese New Year in Taiwan and to attend hanami parties in Ueno Park, Tokyo.

But even we in the USA can have our fun. Washington D.C., of course, has its famous Cherry Blossom Festival. And I’ve even discovered a random neighborhood close to my apartment that harbors a secret: a small street lined with cherry blossom trees!

The flowers have only just begun to emerge, but since we’re going to have a fairly rainy week, I jumped at the chance to take some photos today before the storm arrives. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy and I couldn’t capture any beautiful blue skies in these photos. Hopefully the rain won’t destroy the blossoms and I can get a second shot during the weekend.

These are in fact cherry blossoms, right? Most sakura I see in photos have a strong pink color, but it seems there are many varieties.

Not quite at the peak of cherry blossom season yet. Most of the flowers are still buds.

I don’t think these flowers are sakura, but their pink color stood out amongst the canvas of white flowers. Any botanists here who know what kind of tree/flower this is?

Here’s a selection of some of the Tokyo sakura blog posts that I enjoyed. Stunning photos: Shibuya246; Tokyo Luv #1; Tokyo Luv #2; DannyChoo