Yoyogi park in full swing

Well the Sakura is blooming in Tokyo(though full bloom has yet to begin) so time for me to go check that out. Heard they are blooming on Monday night so didn't get to go then. Tuesday meeting ate up time. Wednesday concert. So today FINALLY I got to see Sakura in bloom.

Where to go first was easy enough. Yoyogi park in Harajuku which is easily reachable. So packing up stuff(camera being prime one) I headed toward station. Trains were rather busy seeing it was noon.

I have no idea what flower the last two pictures are but I found the colour rather interesting. Don't think I have seen that coloured flower before.

The park was already quite crowded and I could spot two groups of girls doing some sort of choreographed dance practices going on. Actually there were several on the park plus bunch of males dancing as well. Interestingly while females were dancing in groups(smallest I saw was 2, biggest 6 dancers) men were all dancing solo dance.

Took a while before I reached the place where Sakura were located but was worth the walk and there was people everywhere sitting/lying on cloths. I took couple pictures first before joining the club and settling for late breakfast.

 There was also lots of birds in the park.

The pools that had been without water last times I had been here had finally been filled with water with water fountains in them. They were not constantly on full strength but time to time went quiet and then started to rise high again.

(extra comment at the end as I spotted battery running low light on camera and had no spare batteries with me. Thankfully seems it was only false alarm...)

There was bunch of kids doing quite a jumping rope practice. Two ropes, opposite swinging directions. Jumper was jumping at times on one feet and at one point the bloody group MOVED around changing direction slowly. I have seen nice rope jumping before but first time I saw the group actually move as they were jumping. So far always the person swinging the ropes have been standing still.

At times on paths like this it was real hard to remember I'm in a middle of metropolis with 12 million people and tons of tall buildings surrounding me.

There was this sun clock and if I understood the use right(on right side the shadow's edge on right indicates the time I think) then it was showing pretty accurately. Edge was pretty much dead middle between 1 and 2 and my clock showed 13:28.

It was so warm even bird was taking refreshment :D

For lunch it was again curry & rise at the park.

After leaving the park finally I decided to walk around the Harajuku a bit. Lots of stores(mostly clothing stores though so nothing to interest me). Suddenly I saw entrance to what looked lot like park or something similar so entered(sakura!). Suddenly there was this torii gate so I got strong suspicion I'm homing on yet another shrine.

 There was this little girl who kept giving me grey hair as I didn't want to get her into picture if I can but she was climbing always to the stature(there was 2) I was aiming for. Haha. Was hard trying to figure how to say politely if she could wait a bit so I could take picture but finally I managed to get clear shot so no need.

 Some sort of memorial hall from the kanji's on top of it. Have to see if I can go there one day.

 Doubtful these were real ones. At least they didn't move at all. Not even the head.

 And sure enough I arrived to the shrine.

Nice door decorations...

There were these paintings but unfortunately the glass protecting them made getting good pictures pretty much impossible. Maybe some other time with sun in less inconvenient place?

These weird what-ever creatures they might be from Japans folk tales were again at front of the shrine. Pretty detailed statues. They even had the male parts...

Even the sand gave impression it's regularly maintained...

On my way to home I stopped at the Shinjuku. Found this HUGE cd/dvd/bluray and I think it might even have reading material that filled floors 7, 8, 9 and 10 of this building. Bejezus. I tried to amuse myself by trying to find cd's of the few bands I knew but didn't find. Too many cd's!

Was also treated to sight of extra eye candy. Was looking at the guide signs for where to go and had just found it when suddenly these two woman with carefully made hair and these frigging gorgeous kimonos bypassed me and luckily straight to direction where I was heading. Yey! With this pretty sight walking ahead didn't even see any particular need to rush so was leisurely walking watching the fine details of the kimonos. Wonder how expensive those things are? Wouldn't be surprised if both were wearing 5 digit of euro's...I presume the pair was on their way to some event or they like to appear very stylized as the hair didn't look like one you can do quickly.

Actually it was such a pretty sight that I actually managed to miss the signpost that said "exit" and had to come back again...Oops! Now that is bit embarrassing :D

At the evening I went to play few more games at the local go salon and got my ass kicked again even though the old gentlemen wasn't even trying his hardest...Dammit dammit dammit. Still need to learn a lot.

And for some reason they always mix my nationality to that of Denmark ;) Well at least it's fairly close!