To our disappointment, we learned that the early blooming of the Sakura ten days ago....stopped, with cold weather.  Thus, the chances were that we would not see anything.  But we took the JR Yamanote Line to Shinjuku Station and walked to Shinjuku Park.  There is a small charge, but the guards said that we should come back in two weeks, so we did not even enter.  This photo was from  four years ago when on April 4 there were a lot of blossoms . We then took the Marunouchi Red Line Tokyo Metro to Ginza Station, and transferred to the Hibiya Line to Ueno Park.  Incidentally we this time had no Japan Rail Pass, and paid for these rides using a Suica card which we added around $50.  This amount should cover several days of riding about in Tokyo. At Ueno Park, we were met by my Blue Bar Pigeon.  Looked up the walk path where in the past it was all white and pink.  This time, nothing.  The season officially starts here tomorrow, March 22 with the  Ueno Sakura Festa 2024 .  Lights go on and

All my ancestors are from Japan. Read about my father's father,  Kenjiro , who I was named after:  I did not learn much about him until I started my roots search after I retired.   That colored symbol says a lot, and  is explained in a 2019 posting about my visit to Utashinai , located north of Sapporo on Hokkaido, from where he left in around 1890 to the USA.  On his way back to Japan, he got married on Kauai, had a son and daughter.  This is why I grew up in Hawaii. About Utashinai, JR does not today have a station there anymore because this once coal town has dwindled into a skiing and wine spot.  Once up to 46,000, it is now down to 3000.  It was Japan's smallest city when I visited four years ago when the population was 3500. It is possible that I've landed in Japan more times than any non-airline employee in Hawaii.  At least a hundred times, and maybe 150, or more.  One reason why is that I've gone around the world so many times because I hate that overnight flig