Tuesday 10 May 2022

2022 Sakura Season in Yokohama City

Poster train celebrating the 100th anniversary of Tokyu Corporation (Kikuna sta.)

I'm temporally shelving the topic of the Romancecar Museum, and showing a seasonal picture today. From March through May, the progress of the "Sakura front (cherry-blossom front)" is reported nightly by the Meteorological Agency, as it makes its way north through the archipelago. The 2022 cherry-blossom front is already arriving at Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan.

During this year's cherry blooming season, I visited several viewing spots in Tokyo, Chiba and one more... Kikuna Sakura-yama (cherry mountain) Park in Yokohama City. It looked like just a common public park in a residential area, but pink-colored double cherry blossoms were "shining" backed by the spring blue sky. It was so beautiful. Reputable cherry blossoms viewing spots are good, but local spots such as Kikuna Sakura-yama Park are really good. It's because we can see local people's peaceful lives.

To visit Kikuna Sakura-yama Park, the nearest railway station is Kikuna on the Tokyu-Toyoko line. On the way back home, I came across a special poster train celebrating the 100th anniversary of Tokyu Corporation. It was set 5051 of the EMU Tokyu 5050 series. As you know, Tokyu is a conglomerate consisting of transportation, real estate, hotel and retail business. It was established in 1922 as a small railway company named Meguro-Kamata Electric Railway. It's a part of the present Meguro and Tamagawa lines. 100 years later, Tokyu has a labyrinthine railway network in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture. The conglomerate does 10 billion dollars a year in sales on a consolidated basis.

Kikuna Sakura-yama Park near Kikuna station on the Tokyu-Toyoko line