After stumbling across the beautiful plum blossoms during my bike ride through Kamakura a couple of weeks back, I was eager to share the experience with Mimi. After searching a bit, we found a spot about an hour west of central Tokyo that was hosting a Ume Matsuri (Plum festival) the following weekend. The town is called Yoshino Baigo and spans between Hinatawada Station to Futamatao Station. Immersed in around twenty-five thousand of the pink and white trees it is really a surreal sight. We initially planned just a couple of hours of looking at the blossoms but ended up just becoming lost in the variety of flowers and calm feeling of Ume-no-Koen park where most of the trees are clustered. Next time, we will follow the lead of others and bring some food and wine for a relaxing picnic. The photos below mostly cover what was found in Ume-no-Koen park. I’ll leave the other flowers, street food and festivities from the Ume Matsuri for the next post.
First sighting of the vibrant plum blossoms was near this gift shop.
The variations in the magenta hues were really stunning.
There were little lanterns like the one behind Mimi all over the town.
There were only a handfull of these trees with drooping branches in bloom. Maybe they require warmer weather?
So stunning in the afternoon sun.
The coolest looking restroom building I’ve come across.
All these little bulbs looked like they were ready to pop.
I only found one of these marking stones along the footpath in the park. I thought the stylized flower graphic on it was pretty neat.
Yoshino Baigo (Plum Village) is just surrounded by these beautiful trees.
A view while descending from the top of the park.
Flowers in all stages of life.
Nice mix of white and pink.
Mimi taking in the different scents provided by the blossoms. Unfortunately, my nose was a bit stuffed.
Mimi decided not to follow the recommended smelling techniques from the lab.
The yellow flowers were pretty scarce.
Sun falling behind the mountains in the afternoon.
VicariousGear 