Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto

April 2012: In early April, we visited Kyoto to see cherry blossoms. Here is the old royal palace garden. In the chilly spring this year, cherry blossoms were delayed, but here we could enjoy them.

遅れの京都御所の4月上旬の桜です。

March, 2012: When we drove through Odawara in late March, we noticed that we had not seen plum flowers of Soga, a part of Odawara.

The plum flower festival had finished long ago, but we thought still there must be flowers because of cold Spring this year. It was right and we could appreciate plum flowers there.

The plum trees there are planted for plum fruits for plum pickles. For that purpose, the plum flowers must be white. But they plant pink drooping plum trees as well, only for sightseeing visitors. Anyway, the flowers were beautiful.

小田原市曽我の梅林を、梅祭がとうに過ぎた3月末に訪れましたが、寒い春のおかげでまだ花は充分にありました。

February 2012: We have had a very cold winter this year. All kinds of flowers are therefore much delayed. This cherry in a park in Izu Peninsula blooms very early in mid-January in ordinary years. But this year, the flowers delayed for about a month and fully bloomed only in late February.

例年だと1月中旬には咲き始める伊豆の寒桜が、今年は寒波で1カ月近く遅れて、2月後半に満開となりました。