Plum festival opens at Mito's Kairakuen garden

An annual Plum Festival has opened at the Kairaku-en garden north of Tokyo.

Kairaku-en in Mito City, Ibaraki prefecture, is known as one of the 3 most beautiful gardens in Japan.

The 130,000-square-meter garden has some 3,000 plum trees of about 100 varieties.

Garden officials say because of the colder than usual weather this winter, only about 50 trees have come into bloom.

On Saturday, visitors could be seen strolling among the trees, and photographing the ones with blossoms.

Last year's earthquake damaged some of the garden's slopes. It also cracked the clay walls in an old summer house of a feudal lord on the grounds. Restoration work was completed earlier this month.

Park officials say they expect the best time to see the blossoms in full bloom will likely be around mid-March.

The Plum Festival continues until the end of March.