Cherry Blossoms in Ueno Park

Today the weather was really nice (though ridiculously windy at times), so we decided to go to Ueno Park (上野恩賜公園), the most popular site in Tokyo for cherry blossom viewing (花見).


We entered the park under a canopy of sakura (cherry blossoms) and walked down a huge set of stone steps to a market of food venders.

Here is a view of the food vendors from the top of the steps. You can also see the top of the Shinto shrine that lies just beyond the vendors.

I was getting hot (it was so freaking crowded), so I decided to buy a kakigouri for 300 yen, which is exactly the same as a snow cone. Except it comes in a cup. All of the banners that you see in the picture below are the different food vendors.

Some of my friends had purchased food as well, so we stopped to eat under this wooden awning-thing, overlooking a lake with sakura on the other side.

Here is a close-up of the takoyaki (basically octopus balls) that my friend bought. They're not my favorite because the dough is sort of gooey and the octopus is sort of chewy, but they're okay.

Here is a closer view of the shrine from the outside, and a shot of the inside.

And one more view of the food vendors and all of the people from the top of the steps of the shrine.

We then walked down a path on the other side of the shrine. It was surrounded by cherry trees and encircled a lake filled with paddle-boating sightseers.