Vertical Garden

As we were looking for a place to eat in the Azabu area, a top expat neighborhood, we chanced upon this apartment building which had a vertical garden as a facade. In a city where space is a premium and yards and gardens are virtually non-existent in properties, I find this such a creative use of space.

Too bad we can't walk on walls. One of the things I miss here is walking on grass which is hard to come by. In big parks what you'll find is usually dirt. Even in school yards and soccer fields, there's no grass, only dirt. I never bothered finding out why there's lack of grass here. Maybe I should.

Sakura Viewing

This is the first spring I've truly enjoyed the cherry blossoms. During our first year here we found the places too crowded, the kids were too young and still needed frequent rests, and we still didn't know how to get around Tokyo well enough. The second two years we missed the full blooms of the sakura. This year I managed to go to five different places to take photos and just enjoy the flowers. The first picture was taken right outside the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

The second photo was taken at Shinjuku Park. I was there early enough on a weekday so there were hardly any people. Otherwise this park can get extremely crowded.

The third one is a photo of Meguro River. I didn't go to the part where the tree branches on one side are touching the ones on the other side. The river is truly a site to behold. As far as my eyes could see, behind and in front, there were flowers.

Now the flowers are almost all gone and the leaves are starting to come out. I look forward to the flower festivals in various parks all over Tokyo which start this weekend.