So it is hanami time! Time to sit on blue plastic sheets beneath the cherryblossoms, and drink and eat untill the early hours. All of it while wearing a kimono! After our trip to Arashiyama we took the train to downtown Kyoto to really get that hanami vibe :-) The atmosphere was amazing, beautiful lit up cherrytrees, crowded restaurants and bars, kimono’s in all the colors of the rainbow, people having fun and enjoying sakura. We even spotted a couple of maiko on their way to a sakura party. Very cool!!
I love the little bars hidden behind the sakura:
Big lamps line up to lighten up the cherryblossoms
Kimonos, Kimonos everywhere!
But then I spotted this lovely maiko. She stood there in the crowd, waiting calmly for her taxi to take her to the sakura party where she probably would play music and sing. 
Kyoto is a vibrant, colorful place during sakura season. 
But we ofcourse also wanted to experience hanami in our hometown Osaka! So the next day, we went to Osaka Castle park and the surrounding river, which is the number one spot for cherryblossoms!
While Kyoto is very traditional, Osaka is more down-to-earth Japan, with people coming from work and strolling around the sakura trees. 
A lot of salarymen, probably coming straight from work at the many skyscrapers that surround Osaka Castle!
Ofcourse we also sat down for a starbucks lunch under the trees :-p
Cherryblossom season is awesome, it’s like Japan wakes up, comes alive, forgets all worries and has fun for a week! After that it’s back to their long and tiring jobs, but with new (pink) energy!