Sakura-Hanami in Koganei Park

Its spring time and Sakura season is upon us for just a week or so. And of course being in Japan, one must try out the things they do here. Coming from the Philippines, we don't get to experience the various seasons and hence I have never experienced Spring. One of the traditions here in Japan during the spring Sakura season is HANAMI. The word is a combination of Hana - flower and mi - to see. So literally it means flower viewing. For someone not used to it, it does look strange. Imagine throngs of people going to the parks to have parties (food and drinks?) and watching the trees and taking pics. It is said doing so helps uplift the spirit.....so as can be seen in the pic in the side...thats me starting at a tree (not seen in the pic) with another big tree in the background....
My first attempt at HANAMI was with several friends last weekend in UENO Park....but it was a bust as it was raining and there were simply too many people...Since my first try at HANAMI was a bust, I scoured the internet for a park that was much closer to my home (which is near Hanakoganei Station). As luck would have it. One park was indeed walking distance from the EKI (train station). Using google maps (being the IT person that I am) I located the general location of the park and printed a map. I emailed a friend if she was interested to go to the park and maybe take pics with me. She was interested, and the next day we set of to find the park. Using the printed google maps of we sort of wandered towards the general location of the park and as luck was with us found the park after about 30 minutes. We took the scenic route (and indeed it was scenic) the first time we went a few days ago, but today, I decided to find the fastest route. A faster route to the park took about 18 minutes brisk walking from my apt and about 15 minutes from the eki. ( I will blog about the routes to koganei park in another post). Needless to say, Koganei Park is a nice place to go for picnics, jogging and biking. It also has an outdoor museum but have not been able to explore that yet...maybe next time...