Chasing Blossoms

Last April, my family and I flew to Tokyo with the main goal of catching the sakura trees in bloom. Although the buds began opening up a week earlier than expected, we're glad to have seen a bunch of trees still covered in varying shades of pink at Shinjuku Gyo-en. 

It would have been a wonderful idea to buy bento boxes and picnic under the trees, as most people do during hanami. However, the thought came to us a little too late; plus, we were dead-set on treating ourselves to a steaming bowl of Ichiran ramen afterwards.

Although it was already pretty late for a decent time for lunch, we still had to endure the queue for an hour. Nevertheless, the wait was worth it! (You can read about a review I wrote on Ichiran from our 2016 Osaka trip here.)

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We couldn't stop taking pictures, so it was really hard for me to shortlist the ones that would make it to this page. Truly a marvelous sight, even though it was past full bloom period. Now, I know spring is all about bright colors, but I decided to take the opposite route for this edit. With digital influencers creating and sharing/ selling their own presets here and there, I was inspired to play around with Lightroom settings as well. In the end, I came up with a dramatic vibe for the pictures-- the gloomy weather made me do it, haha kidding!