For the past few years, this has been my seasonal ritual. Wondering if the plum blossoms have bloomed yet, I head to Ikegami Plum Garden in Ota Ward.
It was an early February afternoon, pleasantly sunny after several days of cold weather had eased a bit. Glancing around the garden that day, the blooms were still about a week from their peak, but they were more than enough for an early spring plum blossom viewing.
Plum gardens like this one, where many varieties of plum trees are gathered, do not bloom all at once across the entire mountain. Instead, the advantage is that the flowering season lasts longer, allowing for extended enjoyment.
Plum blossoms are small and charming, so I prefer to get up close and photograph them one by one like this. On this day, I brought my LUMIX S1IIE with the SIGMA 20-200mm lens, which has half-macro capability, so I could get really close and had a lot of fun.
In one corner of the plum garden, independent Japanese-style rooms and a tea room are arranged around a small pond, creating quite an atmospheric setting.
Come to think of it, I thought I hadn’t managed to photograph much of the winter jasmine this year, but finding just one branch still holding flowers was a pleasant surprise.
I’ll stop here with the photos from this plum garden visit, as there’s no end to it.
I thought I’d taken quite a few shots, but seeing them all lined up like this, I realize I didn’t capture many of those quintessential “plum-like” branches with their characteristic sparse shadows and slanting forms. It seems partly due to the different blooming times of various cultivars, but mostly it’s down to my own lack of skill in composing good shots.
And as a bonus, or perhaps a superfluous addition.
Near the Ikegami Plum Garden, I spotted the Toei Asakusa Line Train depot, so I climbed partway up the overpass to take a shot.
Since it’s daytime, many vehicles are in operation, leaving the garage looking rather empty.
That’s all from the scene.
