Today we went up to the Takaragaike Children's Park, a wonderful playground with lots of fun things for young kids (those older than elementary-school age are not allowed in unless accompanied by someone in elementary school or younger).

It's in a cooler area of Kyoto than we are (they get a fair amount more snow during the winter, for example; as the blog of Nils, who lives up there, will attest). Being cooler, some of their cherry blossoms are peaking and fading a bit later than ours.

Here's a tree right between the “petals fallen” and “leaves grown” state:

All the red stems will eventually fall off.

The next image has three cherry trees in the foreground (although it may be hard to see on the small pic; click for a larger version):

• The tree on the left looks much like that in the picture above (mostly the red stems, but the occasional white petal and occasional green leaf).
• The tree on the right is in absolute full bloom.
• The smaller tree just to the right of center, which at first glance just looks like part of the big fluffy tree on the right, has a mix of half blossoms and half leaves.

These trees are right smack in the middle of the play area; the trees in the background are on the side of a mountain that the park is next to.

I guess the way things progress really depends on the variety. The middle tree has no red stems -- the leaves are pushing out the petals directly. (Heck, for all I know, maybe one or all of these aren't even cherry trees!)

Here's a close-up from the big fluffy tree on the right:

There are plenty of buds which haven't even bloomed yet!