Hey guys! Welcome to the Japanagos Channel.
My name is Chika.
During this time of year,
it is absolute cherry blossom craze in Japan.
Everywehere you go,
you will see cherry blossom flavored snacks,
cherry blossom themed products,
but it's really no surprise why
because cherry blossoms are so beautiful!
It's really difficult to capture...
just how beautiful this place is.
Cherry blossoms are called "sakura" in Japanese.
And as you can see,
I am standing in front of a ton of cherry blossom trees!
I am at the Meguro river,
which is a famous sakura viewing spot in Tokyo.
There are lots of other places as well.
But I've decided to come here.
I've never come here before.
The Meguro area is famous for kind of trendy shops, trendy restaurants.
I'm looking through my facebook feed.
And all I see this whole week are
cherry blossom pictures, posted by everyone.
And I'm like, I've been busy editing videos.
And I couldn't come out and see it.
I was like, oh my gosh, they are going to be gone
by the time I get out.
But I made it! Just in time!
It's basically full bloom here.
Let me tell you a little bit about the history of the sakura along the Meguro River.
The Meguro River itself has been around for a long time.
It used to be an important water source
for the rice farming that took place in this area.
Some of the bridges around here
have been depicted in paintings from the Meiji period.
This river used to be really narrow.
I mean it's still pretty narrow.
You can see those sides right there.
But even more narrow and really shallow.
So it caused a lot of floods.
And it was kind of a problem child for a while.
So they decided to reconstruct it, make it a little bigger.
And as celebration of the construction being done,
they planted a bunch of Yoshino cherry trees along the river.
And that's where this started.
I think that was back in 1927.
is when the first set of trees were planted.
They've been replanted several times since then.
It stretches, I think, about 3 km or so.
It's a nice walk.
And you know, there's lots of trendy shops, and restaurants and cafes nearby.
Oh my gosh, it's so pretty.
Beautiful in Japanese is "kirei."
If you add "cho,"
it means "very."
So pretty!
"Tottemo" or "totemo" is also "very."
That's a little bit more elegant than "cho kirei."
"Cho kirei" is kind of slangish.
So these Yoshino cherry trees,
which are a type of hybrid cherry blossoms,
make up about 70% of the cherry blossoms in Japan.
The reason why they are so popular.
There are two reasons that I found.
One is that the flowers bloom before the leaves,
which makes it easier for viewing the flowers.
The leaves don't get in the way of the flowers.
So when you go to "hanami,"
which is sakura watching (viewing),
it makes for a much more gorgous looking cherry blossom tree.
There are other species where the flowers and the leaves bloom at the same time.
So it doesn't look as gorgous I guess.
And the other reason is that the Yoshino cherry trees mature a lot faster than the others.
They become a full grown cherry blossom tree in about 10 years.
That's another reason for their popularity.
Other than the fact that they are just absolutely beautiful.
I mean, look!
I always thought that I liked the pink cherry blossoms better.
But now that I'm here looking at the Yoshino cherry trees,
and just like the fluffy white and a little pink in the middle,
they are so cute!
And when you look at them from a far,
it's just like fluffy, like clouds of flowers.
It's amazing.
There are 800 cherry blossom trees along this Meguro river.
As you can see, it goes all the way down,
and the other side too.
The cherry blossoms are also very pretty at night.
Sakura at night is called "Yozakura."
"Yo" comes from the kanji "Yoru,"
which means "night."
So I'll come back at night to see the Yozakura.
How great is it that I get to take a bite of this,
surrounded by beautiful sakura?
I am the happiest girl ever!