Looking for Calm

March 22nd in Ikebukuro and things were changing rapidly in the world. Airlines were cancelling flights because of the virus and travel warnings from various governments. I found myself checking JAL's website and Twitter feed regularly because it was difficult to find information about my return flight. One good thing was I had a Moomin Bakery Hattinfattener chocolate eclair for breakfast. 

Outside it was a beautiful day.

Heading out there were still a number of people on the streets of Ikebukuro. 

 But it really was less people than normal. I walked through Ikebukuro's Chinatown towards Ikebukuro Train Station. Except I wasn't going to go through the crowded station. As for Chinatown, it is called this because of the number of Chinese restaurants around the station.

 My plan was to walk around the north side of the station. There are a couple tunnels under the tracks there. I went to the furthest north tunnel, which leads to overpasses over the rest of the train tracks.

Heading over the the east side of the station and tracks. This is a prime location for train fans. While it was a longer distance to the east side, there were less people. 

And there were also sakura trees. 

Which was my plan for the day. To enjoy their beauty. 

I continued walking through the residential area and arrived at a small playground with the most beautiful sakura tree. 

While there were some children playing there, the real draw for locals was this beautiful tree in full bloom. 

I continued to walk through this residential area and arrived at a neighborhood park, Kami Ikebukuro Sakura Park, 豊島区立上池袋さくら公園.

There were various landscaped sections, picnic spaces and areas for children to play. There were a number of people there, but I have to think it would have been more crowded if it wasn't for the virus outbreak.

Because there were many sakura trees in bloom. 

 In the middle of the long park was this statue of an adorable girl and her bird. I haven't been able to find information as to the name of it or the artist. It fit in really well with the atmosphere of this neighborhood park.

Meanwhile, I was enjoying the beautiful sakura. 

I read there are twenty five or more various sakura trees in this narrow park. 

 Along with other types of trees like this magnolia.

A number of people were enjoying hanami picnics under the trees, but they did seem to try to make space in between the groups. Most were wearing masks. The feeling I had that they were mostly families who lived in the neighborhoods. 

 It was nice to find these little uncrowded places to enjoy sakura viewing. It may have involved a long walk, but it was worth it.

Autumn in Hibiya Park

Another cloudy day. I decided to visit 日比谷公園,  Hibiya Park again. Nice retro street lights. I would not be surprised if this dates back to the late 1880's, which is when the near-by Imperial Palace switched to electric lighting. Most likely the lamps have been there since June 1st,1903 when the area was made a public park, if not earlier.

I decided on visiting Hibiya Park because of a couple of reasons. One was because there are a lot of trees there so there would be a lot of autumn color. 

And there was. 

The Japanese Garden was beautiful despite the inclement weather.

A view of 雲形池, Kumogata Pond and the crane fountain. The fountain is one of the oldest in Japan. 

  There were a few people enjoying the Japanese garden and pond, but not many, so it was easy to get lovely photos.

While I was walking to another section of the park, I passed by フェリーチェガーデン日比谷, Felice Garden Hibiya. 

 The German style bungalow was built in 1910 and the architect was 福 田重義, Shigeyoshi Fukuda Shigeyoshi. He also designed the Jack Tower, Port Opening Memorial Hall, in Yokohama. 

 The Felice Garden Hibiya building has been the park administrative office, park museum and gallery, and now it's a wedding venue.

One of the bird fountains in Hibiya Park. This time it's pelicans. Hibiya Park is a good place for bird watching. This fountain is located in 日比谷公園 第一花壇, the First Flower Garden.  

 The First Flower Garden was part of what made Hibiya Park the first Western style park in Japan. Even in December there were roses and other flowers blooming there. Unfortunately most of the roses are away from walking paths so getting decent photos of them or even smelling their lovely fragrance is a little difficult. Still, they were beautiful to see.

While parts of the park are in a Japanese style, overall the park was designed in a Western style with a large grass area, venues for concerts and paths wide enough for horse drawn carriages.

While there are a lot of older things in the park, there are newer items. Like 古代スカンジナビア碑銘譯, the Scandinavia Rune Stone. Placed by the 心字池, Shinji Pond, in 1967, it commemorates the first flight between Europe and Japan back in 1957. I previously wrote about Shinji Pond in a 2018 post about Hibiya Park. That post is here http://blukats.blogspot.com/2018/04/hibiya-park.html.  The Japanese garden at Shinji Pond is definitely older. The pond was part of the moat for Hibiya Gate for Edo Castle, and part of the gate wall is still there too.

Even against grey skies, the ginkgo trees looked amazing. 

And so did all the trees. 

Ueno Under Grey Skies

I was not going to give into the gloomy July skies, the heat and intermittent rain. Only a few days left and I wanted to see something I had not seen before. It wasn't these beautiful hydrangea, which are always nice to see.

Not far from where I started in Ueno, one of Ueno Stations old entrances. There are still lovely bits of old wrought iron here and there in Tokyo. But this wasn't what I came to Ueno for.

I've actually seen this before. One of the main roads through Ueno. Another building built to look like a ship? That's the Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Ueno shop building. It's right next to Ameya-Yokocho, a popular shopping street. But that wasn't where I was going.

Instead I headed to Ueno Park. Also a place I had been to before. Along with a lot of other people spending time there that day.

Up past the refreshing waterfall.

And along a path lined with hydrangea.

Still holding rain drops.

A view down to where I was going. Off in the distance, a place I had been to before. To see something I hadn't seen before.