Is it mostly a weekend thing? When we are there next week I want to go out to Ueno park and find all the food stalls that everyone talks about during this season. Should I wait until a Friday or Saturday or will there be things going on during the week as well?
What days are the Hanami parties?
Just pick any early afternoon that is sunny (at least not rainy) when sakura is at full bloom. In fact, weekdays are better and less crowded. Don%26#39;t just go to Ueno Park, but visit Chidorigafuchi, which is a park inside the old Edo Castle with a moat. It%26#39;s considered the No. 1 spot for hanami in Tokyo and truly breathtaking. Another suggestion is Nakameguro--it%26#39;s not a park, but a hip, Bohemian part of Tokyo full of cute cafes, bookstores, and small designer/artist shops. The sakrua trees are found on both banks of the Meguro river.
I also suggest doing hanami at night as well (sakura at night is called ';yozakura';). Many major sakura sites are lit at night. Food stalls are out selling snacks.
Sakura blooms for about 10 days and the entire country will be in party mood during those days. Companies actually organize hanami parties for their employees. Enjoy your time in Tokyo!
What days are the Hanami parties?
Just pick any early afternoon that is sunny (at least not rainy) when sakura is at full bloom. In fact, weekdays are better and less crowded. Don%26#39;t just go to Ueno Park, but visit Chidorigafuchi, which is a park inside the old Edo Castle with a moat. It%26#39;s considered the No. 1 spot for hanami in Tokyo and truly breathtaking. Another suggestion is Nakameguro--it%26#39;s not a park, but a hip, Bohemian part of Tokyo full of cute cafes, bookstores, and small designer/artist shops. The sakrua trees are found on both banks of the Meguro river.
I also suggest doing hanami at night as well (sakura at night is called ';yozakura';). Many major sakura sites are lit at night. Food stalls and food trucks will be out selling snacks.
Sakura blooms for about 10 days and the entire country will be in party mood during those days. Companies actually organize hanami parties for their employees. Enjoy your time in Tokyo!
Have you checked here?
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011_where.html
One caution: the food sanitation at some of the food stalls/vendors could be questionable(especially dipping source type). Also every year some get sick from eating raw or meat foods which are left out too long in the warm weather. But you may not have a problem, if you are careful.
%26lt;One caution: the food sanitation at some of the food stalls/vendors could be questionable(especially dipping source type). Also every year some get sick from eating raw or meat foods which are left out too long in the warm weather. But you may not have a problem, if you are careful.%26gt;
Honto ni? Really? The sanitation laws are supposed to be pretty strict in Japan. I haven%26#39;t heard of ';shoku-chuudoku'; (food poisoning) at a ';yatai'; (food stall) for years. Blow fish and school lunch poisoning, yes, (or curry that a mom made), but they don%26#39;t have have that at food stalls. It%26#39;s mostly yakisoba, takoyaki, corn dogs, crepe........we used to go to a ramen stall and eat dinner there! With sake and beer! Some places have yakitori and oden, but those are mostly for ';locals.'; They set up shop in the same place day after day. The ambiance is terrific. It%26#39;s the best place to meet a neighbor!
I have yet to see ';raw'; anything in Tokyo, although I know that there%26#39;s a wide array of yatai foods in other parts of Japan (and that%26#39;s part of the fun of traveling), so maybe they have raw food elsewhere.
The seasonal stall guys that you%26#39;ll see at the cherry blossom places go from festival to festival, and sometimes the food moves so quickly, you have to wait in line for your plate of yakisoba! If you go to ';busy'; place, the food will freshly made!
All this thinking about food has made me hungry. Time to go make dinner! :-)
Here%26#39;s what hanami looks like from space: wikimapia.org/鈥?
This is Asukayama Park in Tokyo 鈥okyo.jp/german/鈥ita1 Don%26#39;t know the date of the image.
Regarding food poisoning: I browsed PubMed, and outbreaks of foodborne illness from restaurants aren%26#39;t unknown in Japan. Food stalls, I suspect, might be at risk because of the lack of refrigeration and hand-washing facilities. That being said, I%26#39;ve eaten lots of the stuff with no ill effects.
The only times I got really sick (both times in the same small city, years apart) were after an elaborate dinner (where I did eat all my companion%26#39;s sashimi and baby abalone) at the fanciest ryokan in town and after sushi at the number one sushi restaurant in town.
Roger,
As you know, most of the food during Hanami is bought elsewhere. Also, the stall food is never raw. So I don%26#39;t know how the news reports can make the link to them and food poisoning. I would hate to see tourists miss this experience.
Macsubi
Japanese people are obsessed with hygiene. I once helped out at my friend%26#39;s seafood/izakaya restaurant in Japan for weeks--every restaurant staff member adhered to the sanitization and health code more than many medical staff do here in the US. Also, many restrooms in Japan are surgically clean.
Anyway, I think street food in Japan isn%26#39;t phenomenally good. So, even if you don%26#39;t buy anything at the streetside food stalls, you aren%26#39;t missing anything. Restaurant food in Japan, of course, is one of the very best in the world.
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