Tokyo Thursday - 花見!

Took annual leave for today since I needed to use some (I’ve hardly used any so if I don't use some they’ll go to waste!), and went to Tokyo to meet up with a Japanese friend and do some hanami! Woke up early at 7:00am, got ready, went to pick up another ALT friend who was coming along, and then parked at another ALT friend’s house and walked to the station. The train ride was really nice because we could see a lot of sakura from the train, and there was one part where a long stretch of road was just filled with sakura! Just beautiful. They really bloomed early this year though – we’re not even in April and they’re all already full bloom! Arrived at Shinjuku around 10:30, popped over to Dean & Dulca to get some breakfast while waiting for my friend, and then we met up and went to Isetan’s basement food floor to get bento and Pierre Herme macarons! After we’d got all our food and drink, we walked to Shinjuku Gyōen. There were seriously so many people! I expected some crowds since it’s Tokyo after all, but I didn’t think there’d be this many people since it’s a weekday. There were a ton of foreigners and tourists doing hanami too though, so that’s probably what contributed most to the crowds. My friend said that this was already not too crowded, compared to Yoyogi, which she just went to yesterday.

It was still really lovely though – we found a spot under the blossoms and enjoyed our food! The petals kept falling down so it was really pretty and like we were in a Japanese drama or movie or something. After we finished our little picnic we walked around the park a bit too, taking lots of photos here and there. Then we decided to go to a café to sit down and have what we originally intended to be afternoon tea, but we realized that it was actually pretty close to dinnertime already so we got some food and called it an early dinner. After that we said goodbye and I went home.