Hanami@ around Yasukuni Shrine: April 1, 2012

It is April. The air is still cold, but the sunshine is getting brighter.

Tokyo’s cherry (finally) began to blossom. I walked Yasukuni Shrine and surrounding areas.


Only a few trees opened flowers in the shrine. The trees were still brown (not pink). People, however, did not wait. Thousands of people were there.

There were hundreds of open-air stalls along the main approach to the shrine. Many people enjoyed drinks and food on the carpets laid on the ground.

The local community held cherry festival in the shrine and music and other performances were played.

Yasukuni is politically controversial because the shrine consoles not only the spirits of ordinary war victims but also the souls of class-A criminals (of World War 2). Most people seemed not caring such controversy. They purely enjoyed the arrival of spring.

I walked along Chidorigafuchi, one of the most famous inner moats of the Imperial Palace. Many people were on the boats.

I walked to Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery where the souls of 2.4 million people killed in the World War 2 are consoled. No political controversy is there (unlike Yasukuni Shrine). There were only a few visitors there.

I also walked along a bank of outer moats the Imperial Palace from Yotsuya to Ichigaya. Young people including foreigners were enjoying Hanami (flower watching) picnic under pre-open cherry trees.