Sakura

This was the most difficult post to curate. I have hundreds of photos of cherry blossoms -- pert ones, droopy ones, white ones, pink ones -- so much so that my memory card was full less than halfway into the trip. How could I possibly pick the nicest ones to upload here?

Hanami parties under the trees. These were low tables set out by food vendors. Most groups just brought their  own groundsheets. And the preparations were elaborate. It wasn't just bentos and six-packs. Many had a hibachi going.

I've heard that hanamis can be raucous affairs. Well, there were groups of students singing and clapping. But they all arranged their footwear neatly before they let go.

Yoshino

"A thousand trees with one glance"

Osaka Park

She was posing for wedding pictures.

Even the turtles were admiring the sakura.

Kyoto

I was waiting at a bus stop, then I noticed that the tree next to it is numbered.

Osaka Castle

View of the city from the top of the tower.

Moat and surrounding trees. Cherry, of course, though there are also plum and peach orchards.

Philosopher's Walk, Kyoto

It's really just a back alley path following a canal. Some Kyoto University professor took this walk everyday, and then it somehow got famous. Now it's swamped by tourists taking pictures of local residents' backyards.

Fushimi Inari Taisha Temple, Inari, outside Kyoto

It was just another shrine until Zhang Ziyi ran down the row of torii in Memoirs of a Geisha.

What I thought at first were streamers are folded paper cranes, strung up together.