Japan is known around the world for its stunning cherry blossoms, which create a beautiful, pink-hued landscape during the spring season. The blooming of the cherry blossoms, or sakura, is a beloved cultural event in Japan and draws visitors from all over the world. However, timing is everything when it comes to catching the full bloom of these delicate flowers. In this blog post, I’ll provide you with five essential tips for catching the cherry blossoms at their most beautiful and unforgettable stage, so you can make the most of your trip to Japan.
Be familiar with different types of cherry blossoms.
When people say “cherry blossom season,” they are usually referring to the Somei Yoshino variety because they’re the most common in Japan. They bloom around late March to early April and the most popular viewing spots have rows of these trees that make them look dreamy.
Other than Somei Yoshino, however, there are varieties that bloom at different times. For example, kawazu sakura, which have bigger petals and are pinker than Somei Yoshino, reach full bloom around the end of February. Yaezakura, cherry blossoms that have more than five petals, bloom in late April.
Then there’s also shibazakura, which technically isn’t a type of cherry blossom but has the name because it resembles it. They’re moss phlox that bloom around late April to mid-May.
You may want to adjust the dates of your trip depending on what kind of cherry blossoms you want to see. Keep in mind that Somei Yoshino is peak season, so expect popular attractions to be crowded.
Check the annual cherry blossom forecast
The blooming of cherry blossoms is an anticipated event in Japan, and even for locals, they can difficult to catch without proper planning. Which is why the annual cherry blossom forecast from the Japan Meteorological Corporation is very handy. Big web media companies like Live Japan or Japan Guide translatethis into English. Whichever source you look at, the dates are usually the same because they’re based on the same source material. However, there are some details you need to pay attention to when you look at it.
Let’s take this map from Live Japan as an example. As you may have noticed there are different dates for different prefectures. In general, temperatures rise earlier in the south, so cherry blossoms also bloom earlier in this part of Japan. Visually, you can imagine them blooming northward with Hokkaido as the last stop, so if you have the JR pass and are staying for more than a week in Japan, you can catch cherry blossoms in this direction. (If you’re catching autumn colors, however, the direction would be north to south.)
Another thing that you need to pay attention to when looking at forecast maps like this are the two dates for each prefecture. The earlier date is the first bloom, which means you could probably see a few flowers open, but the rest of them are gonna be just buds. Your target date should be the full bloom or if you want to see sakura petals falling with the wind, go a few days after the full bloom date.
Remember that these dates are just estimates, nature is still unpredictable and experts can only make educated guesses to a certain extent. What I usually do when I’m planning to catch cherry blossoms outside Tokyo is that I put buffer days before and after the supposed full bloom date so that it’s sandwiched in between.
Pick the exact places you want to see
The blooming dates of cherry blossoms can be different even within a prefecture. Heck, I’ve seen cherry blossoms bloom at different times within the same park. That’s why you should never really take someone’s word for it when they say something like, “You should come now, cherry blossoms are already in full bloom in Kyoto.” Like, which part of Kyoto? It may be blooming around your home station, but not in other areas.
This is where research is important. You wanna see pretty things, you gotta do your homework, baby.
The Tokyo Past 3 website has many of the popular cherry blossom spots in Tokyo covered. I update this painstakingly every year.
If you want to see what’s out there in other areas and their forecast dates, I would recommend either the Walker Plus page for cherry blossoms or the equivalent at Jorudan’s. These are Japanese websites, but you can just run them on Google Translate for English translations.
Personally, I tend to go for places where you can ride things like trains, boats, and rickshaws. If I’m doing hanami picnic with friends, then I go to places that I know have food stalls so I can just pig out then laze under cherry blossom trees until it gets too chilly.
Once you’ve got your destinations picked out, it’s easy to get more accurate blooming dates. It’s also easier to plan the shots you want to take because you can look at other photos of the place for reference.
Check live cameras
Once you’ve got your target destinations picked out, check their official websites for live cameras. Places like Chidorigafuchi in Tokyo or Hitome Senbonzakura in Miyagi have live cameras that show the blooming states of cherry blossom trees. There’s also a website called cametan that has a listing of live cameras for different cherry blossom spots all over Japan.
Check Google Maps
This is actually the best tip I can give you. I know it sounds simple, but trust me, this is what I rely on the most.
Before I go anywhere to film, I go on Google Maps, go to Photos and sort by latest. That way, I get an idea of how the place looks like even without a live camera.
I don’t know about other countries but Google Maps in Japan, pretty reliable. Even in the most far-flung places, there’s always some person out there updating stuff.
In fact, I find that most, if not all, of my failed trips could have been avoided if only I looked at Google Maps reviews sooner. For example, had I looked at it before going to Hakone Shrine back when when I made the 2-Day Winter Trip to Hakone video, I’d have known that it was closed off. Had I looked at it before going all the way to Yamagata to find a dog shrine in the middle of nowhere, I’d have known that the dog photos were not there anymore.
So now, every time I plan a trip, cherry blossoms or not, I always make it a point to look at Google Maps. Such a simple thing that takes seconds to do can save so much time, money, and energy.
When you’re checking photos on Google Maps, there are also a few clues as to how much longer you can expect cherry blossoms to be there. It takes around 10 days from flowering for sakura to fall and at its early stage the center of the flower will be green. When the center has become prominently red, then those petals are about to fall and give way to green leaves. Obviously, if you see green shoots then you’ve missed full bloom already, but it would be a good time to capture petals as they dance in the wind.
If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense because flowers are a plant’s reproductive parts. And for us female humans, how do we know that our egg cells have died? We also get red. There, I just ruined cherry blossoms for you.
And those are my top 5 tips for catching sakura in Japan. I hope you’ve found them useful in planning your next trip. For more Japan cherry blossom inspiration, see this page.
