End of sakura season + 1 last hanami

To balance out the number of food posts, I thought I'd leave you with some images from the last sakura blossoms of the year.  Cherry blossom season ends very quickly here in Japan!  Here we are at Meguro -- pretty much all the petals have fallen already, but we decided to enjoy one last hanami!  

Sitting by the benches.  Notice all the petals are gone.  :(

Our hanami: we bought a whole bunch of food from the supermarket.  You can see sashimi, tempura, various salads, soymilk, and my favorite -- pumpkin!

These are all sakura petals in the river!  Isn't it crazy?

Hanami

Hanami are the cherry blossom viewing parties.  Cherry blossom season is the end of March-beginning of April.  We were lucky enough to make it in time to see them!  We went to Ueno Park to watch the parties.  They're pretty crazy!  People bring tarps and boxes and set up their own little elaborate picnic areas.  Everyone takes their shoes off and sits on these tarps, eating street food (there are a million vendors selling all sorts of street food), and drinking sake and beer.  The country is in a sakura (cherry blossom) craze right now; there is cherry blossom merchandise everywhere!  

These picnic areas are elaborate!  People use the boxes to set up mini-tables.