After 36 hours of rejuventating ourselves in our hotel room after week upon week of constant going, we decided to venture out to Chidori-ga-fuchi National Garden for the afternoon.  The sun was shining, and we knew this would be a beautiful time to view the cherry blossoms in the park.  The plan was also to find the moat by the Imperial Palace that we could rent row boats from, and view the cherry blossoms from the water.

Now, I know I've mentioned it before, but I don't think I've quite driven in the point about how important the Cherry Blossoms are to Japanese people.  The cherry blossom (sakura) is Japan's unofficial national flower. It has been celebrated for many centuries and takes a very prominent position in Japanese culture.

There are many dozens of different cherry tree varieties in Japan, most of which bloom for just a couple of days in spring. The Japanese celebrate this time of the year with hanami (cherry blossom viewing) parties under the blooming trees. These couple of days each year are integral to people's lives, planning many aspects of their day around being able to view the blossoms.

So, we arrived to the garden to literally mobs of people, all taking in the beautiful site of the sakura in full bloom.  The mass of people was the first thing we noticed.  The next thing that caught our attention were the big, black rain clouds hovering in the distance, which had colored the sky a dark grey.  We decided that the clouds looked far enough away, and that we'd take the walk around the moat through the cherry blossoms to rent a row boat.  Lets just say, not the smartest idea.

It truly was magnificent walking through the cherry blossoms, which began to fall all over the ground as the winds picked up - they really looked like snow flakes blanketing the ground.  This was a remarkable site.  Both Jason and I experienced a very surreal sensation being in this place surrounded by the cherry blossoms, as the beauty and feeling in the air was something we had never experienced.  I think at that moment I began to understand why so many Japanese people go crazy over these special blossoms that they can only experience a couple days each year.

That feeling though unfortunately only lasted a short time, since the rain drops slowly began to fall.  At this point we had already walked too far around the garden, that there was no turning back. 

Lets just say we got drenched and even had to, sadly, use the local Tony Roma's as a respite to get out of the rain for a bit.  We're both fighting off the chills right now after spending way too much time in the cold, freezing rain, with no raincoat, no umbrella, and only our fleeces which absorbed the water like a sponge.

I will say we were quite lucky to catch a glimpse of the snowy cherry blossoms, however that certainly seems to have come at a price.