2 April 2015
The cherry blossom or sakura season in Japan is about a week and it starts and ends earlier or later than forecasted, depending on the weather for the year. During the expected sakura season, air tickets are not cheap and hotel room rates can go double or even triple. It would be a real shame if we didn’t get to enjoy the sakura in full bloom despite paying a higher price for our trip. In the days leading up to our trip from April 2 to 10, I was watching the Cherry Blossom forecast 2015 website and hoping that our timings would be right.
In this trip, we would be staying 4 nights at APA Hotel Ginza Kyobashi. This would be followed by a day in Shinjuku before heading off for two nights in the Hakone and Kawaguchiko area (to see Mount Fuji and try the onsens) and back to Shinjuku again.
The day finally came and we flew into Narita Airport arriving around 5 PM. APA Hotel Ginza Kyobashi is about 10 to 15 minutes’ walk from Tokyo Station and it would make sense to take the Access Narita Bus than the Airport Express Train to Tokyo Station. The bus fare was 1000 Yen/person and we alighted at the Yaesu South Exit of Tokyo Station which is the nearest exit to the hotel. Upon exiting the bus, I was sort of relieved to spot some trees with cherry blossoms on. We were probably near the end of the sakura season in Tokyo and probably have a day or two before all the flowers would have fallen.
It was easy to find the APA Hotel. Checking in took some time as the young man at the reception was struggling to find our booking in the system using our English Japanican confirmation slip and was too shy to ask for help. Finally another staff came to his rescue and we got our keys. We had a mini-shock when we saw our room. The room in APA Hotel Ginza was the smallest room that I ever stayed in. After taking away the space for the small bed pressed again two sides of the wall, dresser and bathroom area, what was left was about 2 square meters of standing space. And we paid quite a hefty sum for it. But this was the Ginza area, one of the most expensive real estate in Tokyo. And this was cherry blossom season, super peak season!
One of the best places to view cherry blossom in Tokyo at night is the Chidorigafuchi Park. Trees were lit up in the evenings. For 2015, the Illumination was from 27 March to 5 April, 18:30 to 22:00 hours. We took the subway from the Kyobashi Station to Kudanshita Station. Next to the Kudanshita Station is the Yasukuni Shrine, where another one thousand cherry trees were planted. During cherry blossom season, many food stands were set up to provide food for the visitors and that’s where we planned to get our dinner.
Our dinner for the night was food from the stalls – grilled fish, takoyaki balls and okonomiyaki.
We were too late to enter the Yasukuni Shrine but we took a glimpse of the magnificent cherry trees within the Yasukuni Shrine through the opened gate where people were streaming out.
The Chidorigafuchi Park was just across the road and the crowds were making their way there as well. Actually Chidorigafuchi Park is the area around a moat of the Imperial Palace. When I saw the beautifully illuminated cherry blossoms over the water, I kicked myself for not bringing my Nikon DSLR. Armed with only my Samsung smartphone camera, I tried to capture the magnificent night scenes as best as I could.
Here are some of the photos I shot:
Boating area for boat rides on the moat during the day time. This was the last photo I took as the lights went out at precisely 10 PM.
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