In Los Angeles, we are fortunate to have a place where you can see a large amount of cherry blossoms every spring. For us, it’s Lake Balboa in Encino. There are a lot of us who monitor this area every year to find out when the best time will be to go out and take photos here. If we’re lucky, we’ll have two weekends where the cherry blossoms will look absolutely spectacular. If you miss it, you’ll have to wait until next year. It’s a bit of a strange ritual for us, but these days, with the popularity of social networking sites, it’s very easy to keep a large group of people informed about what conditions at the lake are like.  A lot of us keep our weekend plans on hold and when it appears that the time is right to visit the lake, we do it.
This year was the third year in a row that I’ve been out to the lake with a bunch of friends to take photos with the cherry blossoms. On March 20, a picnic was held at Lake Balboa by the same people who put on the Anime Los Angeles convention. Coincidentally, it was on the same weekend that the cherry blossoms began to look their best. Usually, it’s only a few dozen of us out at the lake to take photos. This year, we had a lot of company as this day turned out to be a wonderful event for the Southern California anime and cosplay community. I was quite amazed since the date for this picnic was finalized back in January. It turned out that this date was one of the best days of the year to be at the lake if you like to take photos or have your photo taken.
As I’m writing this, there is still one weekend left where the cherry blossoms will look decent. Back in January, I went to another anime convention related event called Otaku Rehab. The home for this event is actually a park in Ventura County, but the next event will be held on March 27 at Lake Balboa after convincing the people who run it to move it to this location. So this weekend, we have another opportunity for a fun anime and cosplay related event at the lake. It’s probably the final weekend for the cherry blossoms. If you miss it, there’s always next year.
