Shizuoka Blossoms – Shimoda City

In late March I went to the Izu peninsula west of Tokyo to photograph cherry blossoms for the Special.T campaign. I took these photos of cherry and plum blossoms as well as a fruit tree with what could possibly be yuzu or maybe bitter orange (which would explain the fact that they seem to be totally unmolested by the local kids). Izu is famous among cherry blossom chasers, the people who live for following the cherry blossoms blooming around the country, the reason being that these are the earliest blossoming trees on the Japanese mainland! Even in late March they were in full bloom only in this garden in Higashiizu City, in most other places they had already gone past full bloom and I was lucky to find these trees still in bloom, at the Inatori Onzen hot springs. There’s plenty of stuff to see and do in Higashiizu so I think I will be back there soon this year.