How could I have spent 5 spring seasons in Tokyo without paying a visit to Nezu Shrine (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo) when the tsutsuji (Japanese azaleas) are blossoming? It's just like... like... A herd of pink and white sheeps. Strawberry-vanilla bushes. A matress of colourful pillows. It's so pretty your eyes can't embrace fully the view.

Nezu Jinja

Tsutsuji blossom in Tokyo in April. This year they are a bit later than usual and the first time I went there to weeks ago, there were no flowers on the bushes. But I have been allowed to keep my entry ticket and to come back anytime until mid-May to enjoy the view. Actually, I still have this ticket so I could go again. And I would, if it was on my way. Its is so sweet to stand here, surrounded by so many flowers.

You could almost eat it...

Strong sunlight, small pupils

May I find again many unknown places in Tokyo!

All things must end: this is the yearly lesson of the sakura. Life is as short as beautiful. How can something be so full of life and full of death in the same time?... I will never get used to the sakura "swan song". Every time it moves in my heart. Every time if gives me a greater hunger for life.

Hamarikyu Park, Tokyo

The Japanese colors floating on the blue sky. Pure delight.

Do you want some more? Fine.

Ohanami must go on! The most convenient sakura spot for me is defitely Megurogawa, the thin canal running from Gotanda to Ebisu. It's only five minutes from my office, so I can escape during the lunch break and cry with hapiness in front of these sweet cherry blossoms.

Megurogawa riverside sakura show

And here I go again after work, to enjoy the pink light of the paper lanterns.

Megurogawa by night

Honestly... what else?

Every time, the same emotion, the same amazement. Sakura are just like Christmas: you perfectly know how it looks and how it feels, but you get mad about it every single year. You can't help falling in love with it. You can't help worshiping it. Any park becomes a church to you. And Shinjuku-gyoen is a cathedral.

Shinjuku-gyoen, place of faith

So much beauty on Earth, friends. These sakura make me believe in something greater above us.

I'm a believer

Vegetal clouds

I couldn't be more thanksful to be alive and to get drunk of cherry blossoms. Life is so good.

Shinjuku-gyoen, 10 min. walk from Shinjuku station (Southern Terrace exit) - entry fee 200 yen

I eventually fulfilled one of my most secret desires : visiting Happo-en, the beautiful garden and event-space near Shirokane (Tokyo) by night, when the sakura start to blossom. Check! And it was gorgeous!

Happo-en by night is a fantastic, unreal-looking place with fluo green moss. The young cherry blossoms are shining pearl-white on the dark sky. 

Happo-en, another planet

Sakura Safari 2014 starts here...

Happo-en event space (Shirokane, Tokyo) Taiko & Geisha show

BEAUTY

It starts with the shade of a paper umbrella

And then she appears

Raising in the midnight sun light

She open the ball of amazement

Dominating the beat of the drums

Multipliying

Being light and being shadow

Like a floating opera

And finally retreating behind the paper umbrella.

Beauty is inspiration. Find it everywhere. Let it radiate.

In two weeks, the sakura will start to blossom, luring admirers from the five continents. But don't forget that this is the blossoming ume plum-trees that really open the hanami season in Japan. Shy, discrete, perfumed ume flowers that the Japanese were worshiping far before the new cult of the cherry trees.

Today I visited Yushima Tenjin Shrine, in Bunkyo-ku (Tokyo), one of the the most famous ume spot in the capital.

Iconic ume flower

Ume paradise

The shrine itself is not far from the prestigious Tokyo University, and many students of the area come and pray there to pass the next exams.

Yushima Tenjin

"Please God, help me to graduate this year again"

Just like the sakura, there are many kind of ume trees. Some flowers are white, pink, dark pink or almost yellow. All of them smell very nice.

As soon as I will be properly settled in my own place, I will bring home one of these adorable ume bonsai! How sweet and cute!

I'm in love.

After visiting Yushima Tenjin, you can have a longer walk in Ueno Park. And look for the very first sakura !

More blossoms to be continued...

Against the ice storm, winds, and heavy snow weighing on the trees, the delicate plum flower is blossoming anyway. Because she's brave. She's a valiant little flower. She can do it. Her strong heart and discrete beauty will prevail. 

From Higashi-Matsubara park, western Tokyo.

Plum tree flower power!

This is the second snowy week-end in Tokyo this month. Pretty rare. With 30 cm snow and more on the street, making your way in Tokyo became the fanciest local Olympic discipline. A new kind of triathlon including diving, skiing, and jumping to reach your final destination. I can't belive that last year, I was admiring the plum tree blossoms (ume) wearing a light spring jacket.

Plum tree blossoms flowering in the snow

Arriving at Yoyogi park, the landscape really turns into an ice field.

If a seal shows up, I wouldn't be surprised.

Meiji-jingu under the snow

And now the snow-woman needs a warm break. What is better than creamy ginger chai tea latte and banana cake to survive in winter?

What else?

Winterly yours.

Since I moved to Japan, it has been snowing once every year in Tokyo. But this time is the heavier, thicker snow I have ever experienced in the capital. All the city fell into a silky, silent sleep, except for the crows which are noisily expressing  their disagreement with the climate.

At Eifukucho, a few stops away from Shibuya on the Inokashira line, the landscape looks just like a fairy tale.

Enchanted Eifukucho

Snow turns your neighborhood into an unusual place. The flows, the irregularities of the urban landscape disappear under the purity of the frozen coat.

My freezing street

There's nothing like snow to make you genuinely happy like a kid. I had my content of white and frozen beauty for this year.

From Snow-White, with love

 And don't catch a cold!