yamaonna

Sakura and Paper Lantern

Sakura 桜 (Cherry Blossom) are beautiful no matter what time of day you view them, but there are a number of places in and around Tokyo that also have night ‘Illuminations’ of the blossoms.

There is even a special word for cherry blossoms in the evening – Yozakura 夜桜 (literally ‘night cherry blossoms’).  The illuminations range from the whole trees being spotlighted, to the more traditional, with lanterns hanging amongst the branches.

Toshimaen, Tokyo

Toshimaen Sakura Illumination

Toshimaen is an ‘old school’ amusement park in Nerima with whole tree spotlights.  Normally there is an entrance fee to the park, but during the Sakura season, entrance from about 4pm becomes free for the night-time illumination.  In fact, inside and out of the park are a lot of Sakura trees, and the area is quite beautiful in spring (but then, I might be bias, I used to live there).

Kita Koshigaya

Lanterns and path

Sakura at Dusk

These photos are taken at Kita Koshigaya, a place I mentioned in my last Sakura post, from dusk to darkness.  Kita Koshigaya’s Illumination is more of the traditional kind, with paper lanterns.  You might notice on each lantern something different is written, these are the names of the people or the company that ‘sponsors’ the lantern.  It’s quite pretty, but also very hard to photo (especially on a windy evening)!

Blossoms in the dark

To see these photos in full, or see a few more not shown here, please check out my flickr set! Enjoy the flowers!