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April 04, 2006
Yotsuya cherry blossoms
OK...one last look at cherry blossoms for this year. I had to go to Yotsuya this morning for a regulatory seminar, which meant three hours of sitting in front of a computer in a windowless room - ugh. After that, I was more than ready to spend some time outside.
Fortunately, there is a very nice walk between Yotsuya Station and Kioi-cho and the cherry trees there still had their blossoms. In fact, this seems to be prime property for o-hanami and the path was lined with groups out for one last look. You can see some of that on the left. On the right, is one of the late bloomers, apparently.
The path is an embankment with Sophia University on one side and sports fields on the other. It ended at the Hotel New Otani in Kioi-cho, just north of Akasaka. I found out that Kioi-cho is derived from the first syllable of two people and the Ii family, which had a residence there at the start of the Meiji Restoration. I do not remember the first two names...but they obviously start with "Ki" and "O". There is a sign next to the entrance of the Hotel's Japanese garden if you are interested...
And that should do it for cherry blossoms.
I am off to Hiroshima and Miyajima for the rest of the week.