Hanami time

First batch of cherry blossom pictures! I have a ton more, but I haven't finished going through and sorting and resizing, so I'm going to do a couple different posts.
These first two pictures are from Ueno; I have a lot of pictures from Ueno since my friend who's a photographer was with us and took pictures of us all day, haha.


These last ones are all from Shinjuku Gyoen; my friend and I went and had lunch in the park last Thursday. It was a little windy and the cherry blossoms weren't in full bloom yet, but it was really nice anyway. The weather has finally been warming up, so it was great to be able to go outside and have lunch with blue skies and cherry blossoms.
Along with the Ueno photos, I also have some pictures from Chidorigafuchi and Yasukuni shrine, and also Nakameguro. Chidorigafuchi is probably the prettiest place in Tokyo for cherry blossoms; they line the moat surrounding the imperial palace and are just gorgeous. I'm going to try to go there again this week with another friend, since I heard you can rent boats during the day and ride under the blossoms out on the moat, which seems like it would be super fun, plus the view from the moat is probably even more fabulous than the view from the path along the moat : ) Anyway, I went there this evening with a friend to see the night view with the cherry trees all lit up, then we went down to Nakameguro to meet another friend and have dinner near the Meguro river, which is also a really nice cherry blossom spot with a good night view.