Six hundred cherry trees, and a quarter of them are round one pond. Nagano's tourism site gives about six hundred in Garyu Park altogether, with some hundred and sixty of those standing around Ryugaike, the pond at its centre. The flowering runs from the beginning of April into the middle of the month.

The other four hundred and forty are spread through the rest of the grounds, which climb away from the water into ordinary woodland.

Water doubles what is above it, so the trees at the pond appear twice over, once in the air and once in the surface. The crowd goes there, which is both reasonable and entirely predictable.

Walk away from the water and up the slope, though, and the same park empties out within a few minutes. Earth paths, trees at intervals, nobody photographing anything, and the noise from the water dropping away behind you within a hundred metres. The planting has effectively sorted the visitors for you. A quarter of the trees take almost all of the people, and three quarters of them are left to whoever keeps walking uphill. Which half of the park you came for decides where you spend the afternoon. The famous quarter is the smaller one.