We had been told that we would be too late to catch the cherry blossoms in Tokyo, and arriving on a gray evening with the rain pounding down we were certain that even had there been a few brave blossoms left they would be be gone by morning.

How wrong we were! The next day we implemented the jet-lag-fighting strategy of perpetual motion--meaning we walked 5 straight hours--and did come across enough "sakura" to keep this amateur photographer grinning from ear to ear. It has been unseasonably cold here, resulting in a longer than usual blossom time.