The last weeks were packed with work, so I decided that I need a day off and went last Friday to Shinjuku Gyoen to see some early cherry blossoms.

The Sakura forecast for this year predicts the blooming for Tokyo between March 29th and April 6th so I was way too early for the major hanami sites, but in Shinjuku Gyoen you can find several Sakura types, so you can actually see cherry blossoms before and after the official forecast.

Nevertheless the park was quite full for a clouded weekday early afternoon and lots of people seemed to be on the hunt for the first cherry blossom pictures. I found some really beautiful trees and took more pictures than should be packed into one blog post. I tried to choose the best ones, but it really wasn’t easy.