Cherry blossoms party (Hanami)

Spring has come a bit early to Japan this year and thus the cherry blossoms have come out a bit early as well. In this area, they are almost at full bloom. That was good enough for us to join some friends to have a picnic under the trees on Saturday. Ayako and I showed up in the late afternoon, so I only got a few shots. We met our friends by Hamamatsu castle which you can see in the picture:
Here's a picture of a tree in full bloom:
And here is our group at night time under a big tree: