I'm going to continue to show you this year's sakura (cherry blossoms) season photographs.
On March 22nd, the Meteorological Agency of Japan made a press release announcing that sakura in Tokyo had fully blossomed. It's an exciting season for Japanese people, as they are very fond of sakura viewing. I'm also one of them. Although we were prohibited to hold parties under the sakura trees in public places due to new coronavirus infection risks, we could at least enjoy walking on the streets or in the parks viewing sakura blossoms in full bloom. On Sunday, March 29th, however, the weather was unexpected. It was unseasonable snow in Tokyo. It was the first time in 51 years that snow fell and built up during the sakura blooming period. I was discouraged a bit, but tried to shoot sakura blossoms with snow in my house's neighborhood taking heart. It's unique and also tasteful.
On the way back home, I stopped by the nearest railway station and tried taking photographs of trains with snow. The EMU Odakyu 4000 series was just about to pass through the station. Different from before, trains in Tokyo have become snow resistant. One of the reasons is their pantographs on the roofs. Currently, single-armed pantographs are adopted by many railway companies. A single-armed pantograph is effective for snow accumulation prevention, because it has only a small area on the top of its shoe. Needless to say, a heavy pantograph with snow accumulation causes a pantograph bounce.
On March 22nd, the Meteorological Agency of Japan made a press release announcing that sakura in Tokyo had fully blossomed. It's an exciting season for Japanese people, as they are very fond of sakura viewing. I'm also one of them. Although we were prohibited to hold parties under the sakura trees in public places due to new coronavirus infection risks, we could at least enjoy walking on the streets or in the parks viewing sakura blossoms in full bloom. On Sunday, March 29th, however, the weather was unexpected. It was unseasonable snow in Tokyo. It was the first time in 51 years that snow fell and built up during the sakura blooming period. I was discouraged a bit, but tried to shoot sakura blossoms with snow in my house's neighborhood taking heart. It's unique and also tasteful.
On the way back home, I stopped by the nearest railway station and tried taking photographs of trains with snow. The EMU Odakyu 4000 series was just about to pass through the station. Different from before, trains in Tokyo have become snow resistant. One of the reasons is their pantographs on the roofs. Currently, single-armed pantographs are adopted by many railway companies. A single-armed pantograph is effective for snow accumulation prevention, because it has only a small area on the top of its shoe. Needless to say, a heavy pantograph with snow accumulation causes a pantograph bounce.
