Japan is famous for the annual blooming of Cherry Blossoms, called Sakura. The whole country becomes obsessed with the time the blooms will come, signalling spring. They only last for a few days and probably are at their best for around 36 hours. Tokyo normally gets the blossoms around the beginning of April, depending on the speed at which Spring has arrived. I live nearby the Meguro River, which is famous for kilometres of cherry trees lining the banks and providing a beautiful site. I returned from Hong Kong on the day of the best blossoms and managed to get a few photos.
I took along my Hasselblad 500CM and a light meter. I used only Kodak Portra 400 film, that I rated at 200 for the shoot so I over exposed. It was developed and scanned using Richard Labs in the US, and I am once again very please with the results and the fact it took me no computer time to get them into the shape you see here.
One shocking part of the day was the number of Chinese tourists that have now descended on Japan. You could really only hear Mandarin or Cantonese spoken in the crowds - and they were very noisy. I hope the numbers don’t increase too much as it was way too crowded and these tour groups can get very pushy at the best of times…….
Looking from Meguro towards Nakameguro. The river is not the clearest of waterways.
Looking in the other direction.
Almost like pink cotton wool.
Late afternoon gave some good light.
In Nakameguro proper.
A little crowded…
As you can see.
In the middle of the city.
This apartment has a nice view for a few days.
It all falls so quickly. Even on this, the best day, the river was pink with petals.
