Nagoya: Petals Starting To Fall

Following yesterday's report from Hiroshima where the cherry blossoms were just beginning to fall, today I arrived in Japan's fourth largest city of Nagoya to check on two more blossom-viewing hotspots.

Here, yesterday's rainfall has already caused some petals to fall, with further rain today and tomorrow likely to take down even more and bring a premature end to the period of best viewing. Some spots however will still be worth a visit until the weekend, when yet more rain will bring the season to a decisive close.

My first stop today was at Tsuruma Park, the city's oldest municipal park and well-known today for the 750 or so cherry blossom trees spread in clusters throughout its grounds.

Here, the picture was quite varied with some lovely blossoms still to see around the grassy central area and in the eastern part, while the trees in the western plaza facing the station were already visibly thinning out with lots of petals already scattered on the ground - I'm afraid that many more will likely fall in the coming 12 hours.

My second stop was at the Yamazakigawa Riverside - a pleasant strolling area stretching for about 2.5 kilometers and lined with around 600 cherry blossom trees, a little over 25 minutes by subway from Nagoya Station. While this area was similarly patchy, overall the blossoms felt a day or two behind those at Tsuruma Park and just within the range of best viewing, with noticeably less petals on the ground. Here, enough blossoms will probably survive for the nice conditions to continue until the weekend.