It was another lovely day of sunshine and light breeze; perfect for our trip to Shinjuku Gyoen park. Shinjuku is the archetypal image that most people have of Tokyo with tall buildings plastered in neon signage, though it looks fairly tame by day.
On the way we went to IDC and ordered some curtains for the living room. It's amazing how you can make major purchases so quickly when you have a fretful baby in tow: I scanned the rows of sample fabrics and had narrowed it down to a couple in ten minutes flat. Luckily, Nick agreed with my choice.
The park was nearby and we joined the ranks of cherry blossom viewers to file though the entrance. Unlike Ueno last weekend, this place was more than big enough to cope with the crowds and we were easily able to find a spot under some pine trees for our picnic. Shinjuku park is perhaps my favourite so far and hard to beat. Its size means that you should always be able to find some solitude (apart from a festival time like this), and it has many trees of great variety, as well as a string of pretty ponds. There is an English garden; also a French formal garden, a Chinese-style pavilion and a Japanese garden. Some cherry trees were now past their best, but rained down showers of pale pink petals whenever the breeze stirred them. The many neatly-clipped azalea bushes promised a fine display to come and the carefully-trained pine trees will provide year-round interest.
We had a fine position to people-watch; some were dressed very smartly indeed, others just chilling out. The group of picnickers next to us included a trans-sexual and a girl in legwarmers and 6-inch diamante-studded sandals. There is a strong trend in Tokyo for young women to wear long socks with just about every item of clothing, particularly hotpants and mini-skirts.
No comments:
Post a Comment