April 06

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Cherry Blossom Illuminations

Posted by on April 6, 2017 in Awesome Stuff To Do, Just...Beautiful, Seasonal Goodness | 3 Comments

Did you even have to ask? It’s not enough that famous cherry blossom spots are lit up at night, now Tokyo has electric cherry blossom extravaganzas that rival the ever-more-crazy holiday light shows!

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TOKYO MIDTOWN in Roppongi

Tokyo Midtown’s promenade of cherry trees is not only lit up in pink…

There’s an artful mix of pink gels on the spotlights, so these trees look exactly like the unnaturally photoshopped ones all over the interwebz

…they also dumped a huge cone of dirt on the field where the illuminations happen in wintertime, and topped it with some funny-shaped bushes. During the day it’s completely WTF-am-I-looking-at, but at night…this.

The three-minute animated projection mapping does not disappoint. Here are a few still shots…

…or heck, just watch the video (it’s three minutes of your life you won’t regret)

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NIHONBASHI AREA near Mitsukoshi-mae Station

While it can’t quite compete with the psychedelic Mt. Fuji, the cherry-challenged shopping district of Nihonbashi does pink itself up at night with some animated cherry petals & such. Just beyond the Coredo 2 building, you’ll come to an outdoor pass-through that greets you with swaths of billowing pink chiffon above and ever-changing patterns of cherry-themed projections below.

Walk through to the Fukutoku Shrine (right behind the Mitsukoshi flagship store) which strews a few blossoms to lure you in…

…to the plaza beyond, where more are swirling about.

Out front, the stately homes of various venerable institutions are also temporarily pinkified.

The mighty flagship Mitsukoshi department store

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TOKYO TOWER near Kamiyacho Station

If you’re Tokyo Tower, you glow pink from 20:00-22:00 every Saturday through April 22

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And what can be more illuminating than a novel set in Tokyo?

“A genuinely gripping crime thriller which wrong-foots and perplexes the reader throughout, drawing us in emotionally . . . Highly recommended.” –Raven Crime Reads

For nine years, Tokyo Detective Kenji Nakamura thought his mother’s death was an accident. Then he gets a call, and his life begins to unravel. Because if it wasn’t an accident…what was it? Read more