The cherry season at Ueno turns over across more than two months, and the city publishes it variety by variety. Kanzakura from February into March. Kanhizakura in early March. Okanzakura in the middle of March. Komatsu-otome and Somei-yoshino from late March into the first days of April. Ichiyo in mid April. Kanzan and fugenzo from the middle of April to the end of it.

Read that list and it becomes clear that hanami at Ueno is not a one-week event at all. It is a relay, and it has been running since well before anyone thought to publish a schedule for it.

The crowds, however, are. They come for the ten days of Somei-yoshino, and the city puts the total at close to three point three million people over the season, which is roughly the population of a mid-sized country arriving at one park.

Three and a bit million in ten days at one end, and a kanzakura in February that almost nobody walks over to look at, at the other. Both are the same park and, in a sense, the same tradition. If the number puts you off, the answer is not to skip Ueno but to come at a different point on the list, when the paths are wide again and the flowers are on trees most people cannot name.