Usually by this time in March the sakura trees have come into full bloom. It’s now April 1st and most of the trees have only just started to bloom. This is due to some unusually cold days at then end of March. Days that are usually warmer and sunnier. The Tokyo Meteorological Center predicted the trees would bloom in Tokyo around March 23rd.

Welp.

I can’t help but thinking about the people who booked their trips here thinking they would see sakura only to go home empty handed, or empty eyed rather. Luckily for ME and Nikki we still have 11 days Left here. So more than likely we will get to enjoy the cherry blossoms in all their splendor. I’ll talk about it later on in the blog post thought (and post pictures), but for now we need to rewind just a bit.

*Rewind Sound*

After coming back to Tokyo from South Korea, I wasn’t feeling great. Turns out I have a minor cold, so I coupled up in the house for that day and a half and just rested and stayed away from people. I did step out the first night to eat, and the next day to go to the park. Fomo got me. Fomo is the Fear Of Missing Out (on something). For those wondering I explain shit like this because some of my readers may not be from a country where English is their first language and they don’t know these terminologies. Moving on…

After getting some Japanese over the counter meds and putting on my mask, I got up and went to a park in Shinjuku and lo and behold:

There it was. The one tree. Fully bloomed and Fully crowded with people with their phones out snapping pics. All the other sakura trees in the park… maybe 20% bloomed. That’s 20% per tree, not 20% of the trees.

And that was that. We looked at the tree. We left. I felt guilty being out with my cold and hadn’t eaten anything that day, so we went to grab some CoCo Curry and call it an early evening. On the walk there we saw this dude just chilling in the Times parking lot.

That all brings me to today. I’m feeling better. I’m ready to explore. So Nikki and I went to a Book Off plus to peep the vintage stuff on offer, and then went to Harajuku to link up with Dak. Dak wanted to take us to see the sakura trees around the emperor’s castle moat. The drama of the sakura continued. Barely any of the trees had bloomed. It was like they wanted to bloom and were trying their hardest, but just couldn’t do it. がんばって！

From here we walked to Yasukuni Jinja (jinja means shrine) and saw some better results, but only by a bit.

Then we saw something that kinda blew all our minds. The main sakura tree. The tree that the meteorological center uses to determine when sakura will bloom. Meaning like if this tree blooms, all other trees should be blooming. Explain this:

This mother fucker is bloomed lol. How Sway. Did the other trees not get the message??? Crazzzyyy…

I mean fine ok, whatever. So we just enjoyed the moment and took some photos. Then moved around Tokyo by taxi and train with Dak for the rest of the night until about 23:00 (11pm). Blogs not done, but here’s some photos before my final thoughts.

So what are my final thoughts? For people who live in a city like NYC this may not resonate as much, but for people in sprawling suburban nightmares like Florida, it should. Today I woke up, got a latte and cough drops at a corner store, went shopping in one neighborhood, got lunch, went back home, went to another neighborhood to shop, went and saw all that sakura stuff, went to another neighborhood to shop, then went to dinner in yet another neighborhood, and then back home. I did all of that without having to drive once. I did all of that only catching a taxi 3 times (and that was by choice cause it could’ve been done by train easily). I did all of that in 7 hours. I didn’t even mention in the main blog story how many places we stopped and browsed at in Harajuku/Omotesando. I didn’t mention the book store, or Starbucks, or even much about dinner.

I can say with confidence that I can’t do that back home with public transportation. And if i did, it would take 24 hours on the metro bus. And that’s assuming it stops even remotely near where I need or want to be. I’d have to drive. I’d probably be stuck in traffic. I’d probably just say fuck it and stay home. America gotta do better. Don’t get me wrong I know Japan is far from perfect, but the USA could learn a thing or two about how a timely and efficient train system could change the game. Fuck cars.

That’s my final thought: Fuck Cars.