Sakura (The Cherry Blossom Festival)

What:  The most roman­tic fes­ti­val in the world, the icon­ic Saku­ra rings in the cher­ry blos­som sea­son  across Japan as the coun­tries beau­ti­ful cher­ry trees flower and for two weeks in April turn the parks, cas­tles and moun­tains of Japan into a scenic won­der­land.

While steeped in tra­di­tion and Bud­dhist beliefs sym­bol­is­ing the beau­ty of life, the fes­ti­val is also a time for meet­ing friends and fam­i­lies as groups will gath­er under­neath the trees to chat, drink and eat in a tra­di­tion known as hana­mi – with a series of food ven­dors, bbq’s and pop-up restau­rants flock­ing to the cher­ry fes­ti­val to ensure everyone’s appetite is sat­is­fied– which com­bined with the bloom­ing flow­ers, free pub­lic per­for­mances and a series of tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese tea cer­e­monies that take place in the parks make for a stun­ning and beau­ti­ful cher­ry blos­som fes­ti­val.

When: The offi­cial fore­cast for the Saku­ra takes place for two weeks usu­al­ly at the start of April, with the sea­son shift­ing based on cli­mat­ic con­di­tions – a series of Japan­ese news chan­nels and cli­mate bul­letins are released in the run-up to the fes­ti­val advis­ing on when the flow­ers will bloom.

How­ev­er do be aware — this is only for one aspect of cher­ry tree’s bloom­ing — and you can find oth­er cher­ry blos­som fes­ti­vals begin­ning from mid Feb­ru­ary (we’d rec­om­mend Mat­su­da) all the way to the end of May (Hokkai­do) — with there being an actu­al 3–4 month win­dow to wit­ness the icon­ic cher­ry blos­soms in Japan.

Where: The cher­ry blos­som fes­ti­val is best seen in Tokyo and Kyoto with the Fuji Five Lakes Yoshi­noya­ma parks known to be two of the best places to enjoy a pic­nic.

You can also find great spots and an abun­dance of trees at the Taka­to Cas­tle Ruins Park and the Hirosa­ki Cas­tle which both bal­ance Japan­ese his­to­ry with stun­ning lakes, plen­ty of room and good food spots to enjoy the cher­ry bloom.

Dura­tion: While the fes­ti­val lasts two weeks, for the best expe­ri­ence it’s rec­om­mend­ed to set aside at least a long after­noon in one of the parks and bring with you an abun­dance of food and drink and sit and enjoy the beau­ty and nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­non of the fes­ti­val – for those want­i­ng to go one step fur­ther par­tic­i­pat­ing in a free local tea cer­e­mo­ny in the parks is also rec­om­mend­ed.

Tick­ets: The Saku­ra is a com­plete­ly free nat­ur­al event so there is no cost except for that which you spend on food and drinks to enjoy at the fes­ti­val. Do be aware that some spe­cialised fes­ti­vals may charge an entry fee of between 500 — 1000 Yen to attend.

Need to Know: Owing to the pop­u­lar­i­ty of the fes­ti­val and the thou­sands of peo­ple who attend the offi­cial two week peri­od, there is a com­pet­i­tive edge when it comes to secur­ing the best spots in the parks dur­ing the fes­ti­val – includ­ing peo­ple attempt­ing to reserve spots the night before and peo­ple attempt­ing to camp out in the parks, so it’s rec­om­mend­ed to either arrive ear­ly or accept that your spot for food may be in the out­er edges of the parks.

Along­side this you can also expect hotel prices and flights to sky­rock­et dur­ing the offi­cial saku­ra fes­ti­val peri­od. For this rea­son we rec­om­mend con­sid­er­ing attend­ing one of the cher­ry blos­som events with­in Japan out­side the offi­cial fore­cast.