I love the little sprig of blossoms nestled in the bark of the tree.

I thought I'd post some more photos from the really pleasant visit I had to the Yodogawa Kasen Park a month ago, at the start of the cherry blossom season.

If you'll recall, it's a mile-long raised berm with a path in the middle, lined with hundreds of flowering (but not fruiting) cherry trees.

The area to either side has pathways as well, and eventually rivers (it's at a spot where three rivers come together). I wouldn't be surprised if the lower areas flood during the rainy seasons.

I went on a weekday well before peak blossoms, so it was generally uncrowded. Sometimes you strolled with others....

... and sometimes you had the place pretty much to yourself:

The little plaque on the tree (shown again at right) is an augmented version of the little plaques one finds on a lot of plant life in Japanese public parks, identifying the name or species of plant. The title says “Somei Yoshino,” which could also be written 染井吉野 and means “Yoshino cherry tree.”

Then it says Rosaceae (which is a word I don't even know in English, but the meaning is clear from the Japanese: “rose family.”)

Then it describes....

The trees whose cherry blossoms you're enjoying now are for the most the same as this tree. They spread from Edo's “Somei Village” (now Tokyo's Toshima Ward) and hence the name.

Edo is the old name for the Tokyo region (for the millennium or so until 1868). The “Somei” is written as 染井, the first part of the tree's name. These days, that Toshima Ward area seems to be a concrete jungle, so I'm glad the trees made it here (and all over Japan, apparently).

Here's another sign I noticed:

It says “Beware of Mamushi,” which is not very helpful if you don't know what “Mamushi” is, which I didn't. Luckily, I must be clairvoyant because I somehow magically understood the meaning nevertheless. 🙂

Mamushi is a type of pit viper whose venomous bite can be fatal, and as such, bewaring of them is probably good advice.

I didn't see any snakes, but did see this ferocious beast in a field of flowers down the hill from the berm:

It was extremely hazy, but I felt an obligation to take a picture of the bullet train running by half a kilometer away.

By the way, I should fess up that I added the blue sky to the 2nd photo in this post. It was so hazy that any picture with sky turned out horrible (like the bullet-train one above). Of course, while visiting, one's attention tends to gravitate to the cherry blossoms and is encouraged toward pleasantness by the lovely breeze, the nice smells, etc., but none of that shows up in the picture. So, lacking the blue sky that would have added so much had it been there, I added it.

I didn't mention it until now so that you would have a chance to see the picture without knowing that the sky was faked. Once you know it, it looks, well, fake. I hope my artistic license is not revoked.