Here we are, this is the 2015´s week for hanami in Tokyo. Yes, it usually don’t last much then a week because at some point it rains and the delicate flowers fade. Right now the cherry trees are in full bloom, every place is crowded and Japanese people heads are spinning with flowers, sake, and spring. There is something extremely beautiful and poetic in the air, these trees, these flowers, that moment that will be very short, it is certainly a good reflection on the shortness of life and the natural cycles.
But this has turned out as being such a business, of blue plastic sheets, potato chips and cheap alcohol, and people are taking this opportunity to get massively drunk, that I found celebrating hanami almost disgusting now. Hopefully there are still a few placed where you can enjoy the calmness and beauty of spring, without getting lost in crowds of drunkards. So avoid Ueno park, Yasukuni shrine, Naka-meguro… Instead, stroll in Yanaka cemetery, in Tokyo University botanical garden, or on some universities campus (Todai, ICU, TIT, TUAT…), or walk around the imperial palace at night. But please, do it in style!