Cherry blossom in Japan: dates by city, where to go and what to book

Pick your weeks from the normal dates, then book the beds

Japan's cherry blossom season is short, and it travels. Every spring the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) watches a sample tree in each city, almost always a Somei-yoshino, and records two dates: flowering, the first day five or six blossoms are open, and full bloom, the first day about 80% of the buds are open. Its normals, the averages for 1991–2020, show the front reaching Kyushu, western Japan, Kansai and the Tokyo region in late March, Hokuriku and southern Tohoku by about 10 April and the north and east of Hokkaido in mid-May. JNTO notes that the trees usually blossom for around 10 to 14 days, with the peak in the middle.

You will be booking before anyone can forecast the year. JMA stopped issuing its own blossom forecasts in 2010, saying that private weather companies were providing equivalent information; JNTO says the forecasts come out at the start of the year and are updated frequently as spring approaches. So plan on the normals and on how recent springs compared with them (both in the next section), choose dates that straddle full bloom in the city you care about most, and book rooms you can cancel. Once the season starts, JMA's own page lists each city's flowering as it is observed. Kyoto's official guide advises reserving well in advance for the blossom season, and JNTO warns that rooms in popular cities book out quickly at peak times.

Where you sleep matters as much as when. The famous spots are at their calmest early in the morning, so a base you can walk out of at dawn beats a cheaper room across town. In Tokyo, Ueno or Asakusa puts you beside Ueno Park; in Kyoto, Higashiyama puts Maruyama Park on your doorstep, with the Philosopher's Path a short way north. For a later trip, Kanazawa and Sapporo are the bases that catch the bloom after Tokyo and Kyoto have finished.

Normal flowering and full-bloom dates by city

The list below gives JMA's normal dates for the observatories in, or nearest to, the places we cover, in the order the blossom usually arrives: flowering first, then full bloom. Kamakura, Himeji and the Fuji lakes have no station of their own, and JMA does not currently observe the blossom in Takayama, so use the nearest city as a guide and allow for altitude. In the normals, full bloom follows flowering by five to nine days.

Recent springs have mostly run ahead of these dates, but not every year. When we checked JMA's tables on 2026-10-10, almost every city in this list flowered earlier than normal in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2026: Tokyo by 10 days in 2021 and 2023, Hiroshima by 14 days in 2021. In 2024 the blossom was late across much of central and western Japan, with flowering on 29 March in both Tokyo and Kyoto, and in 2025 it opened within a day of normal in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. The north was consistent: Kanazawa, Nagano and Sapporo flowered early in all six years, Sapporo by between 8 and 16 days. Plan around the normal date, then lean a few days earlier.

• Tokyo: 24 March and 31 March
• Hiroshima: 25 March and 3 April
• Yokohama (nearest for Kamakura): 25 March and 1 April
• Kyoto: 26 March and 4 April
• Osaka: 27 March and 4 April
• Kobe (nearest for Himeji): 27 March and 5 April
• Nara: 28 March and 4 April
• Kanazawa: 3 April and 8 April
• Nagano (the lowland city nearest Hakuba): 11 April and 16 April
• Sapporo: 1 May and 6 May

Tokyo: Ueno Park, Chidorigafuchi and Shinjuku Gyoen

Ueno Park, one of the five sites Japan designated as its first public parks in 1873, has about 1,200 cherry trees, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which runs it, and its early kanzakura and Somei-yoshino give it about two months of blossom. It is free and open from 05:00 to 23:00, with no entry outside those hours. JNTO calls the Ueno Cherry Blossom Festival one of the biggest and most crowded in Japan, with lanterns lighting the paths after dark, so walk the main avenue soon after opening and come back for the lanterns rather than the middle of the day.

Chidorigafuchi, a moat of the Imperial Palace, is lined by a promenade of cherry trees about 700 m long, lit up in the evenings during the season. In 2026 Chiyoda City made the path one-way for pedestrians at weekends, from the Yasukuni-dori end, and sold advance tickets for the rowing boats on the moat, which otherwise draw long queues; the city's festival site posts each year's arrangements before the season.

Shinjuku Gyoen, a national garden run by the Ministry of the Environment, is the calmer choice and the only one of the three that charges admission. Its site counts about 900 cherry trees of some 70 varieties: about 300 Somei-yoshino in late March and early April, then double-flowered yaezakura that peak around mid-April, after the moat and Ueno have finished. When we checked on 2026-10-10, the garden listed adult admission at ¥500 and hours of 09:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30) from 15 March, and said it opens every day, Mondays included, from 25 March to 24 April. On the peak weekends of 2026, entry between 10:00 and 16:00 needed an online reservation, while the first hour did not, and the garden warns that busy days may require reservations again, so watch its site from early March.

Kyoto, Osaka, Himeji and Hiroshima

In Kyoto, the Philosopher's Path follows a branch of the Lake Biwa Canal for about 2 km, and the city's official guide counts about 400 Somei-yoshino and Oshima cherry trees forming a tunnel over the water. Walk it early, from the Keage end towards Ginkaku-ji as our Kyoto guide suggests. Maruyama Park, the city's oldest park, beside Yasaka Shrine, is the place for the evening: its great weeping cherry, the Gion night cherry, is a second-generation tree planted in 1949 and lit up after dark, and the official guide says the park is at its best in early April, full of picnicking groups.

Osaka Castle Park has about 3,000 cherry trees, mostly Somei-yoshino, and its Nishinomaru Garden holds the tree JMA watches to declare Osaka's flowering; on that night the castle tower is lit pink. The garden's roughly 300 trees below the keep are the best of the park. In 2026 the garden stayed open until 21:00 for night viewing from 20 March to 12 April, with a special admission of ¥350; the rest of the park is free.

Himeji Castle has more than 1,000 cherry trees, and JNTO notes that the blossom in the outer grounds can be seen free of charge. The castle's congestion forecast for 2026 marked the weekends of late March and the first weekend of April among its busiest days, so take the earliest time slot, as our Himeji guide explains. In Hiroshima, the castle grounds have more than 300 cherry trees and Shukkeien garden holds evening light-ups in the blossom season, which the Peace Memorial Museum also marks as one of its most crowded times; our Hiroshima guide covers its timed tickets.

Hakone, Mount Fuji and Kanazawa

Hakone's blossom climbs the mountain from late March to mid-April. Hakone Navi puts the trees along the river at Hakone-Yumoto at their best from the last week of March into the first week of April, Gora Park's varieties from early April and the mamezakura of Onshi Hakone Park, above Lake Ashi, from the middle of April. That makes it a good overnight stop after Tokyo has peaked.

The view of Chureito Pagoda, Fuji and blossom together in Arakurayama Sengen Park is best from early to mid-April, according to JNTO, and it has become a burden for the people who live below it. Fujiyoshida City did not hold its cherry blossom festival in 2026, citing more than 10,000 visitors a day at peak bloom, one- to three-hour queues for the observation deck and trespass on private property. It asks visitors to come by public transport, keep out of residential streets and not take photographs there without permission. Go at first light, as our Mount Fuji guide suggests, or frame Fuji with blossom from Ubuyagasaki on Lake Kawaguchi, which JNTO recommends in spring.

Kenroku-en in Kanazawa has more than 400 cherry trees of about 40 varieties, according to the city's tourism association. When we checked on 2026-10-10, the prefecture's garden site said the garden opens free of charge for about seven days in the blossom season, between late March and early April, and is lit up at night. For the classic castle-and-blossom view, JNTO points to the Ishikawa-mon Gate, where cherry trees line the walkway between the garden and the castle park. Kanazawa's normal full bloom, 8 April, comes four days after Kyoto's, so it fits the second half of a trip.

Following the bloom north: Takayama, Hakuba and Hokkaido

If you can travel only from mid-April, or miss the peak in the south, go north or uphill. Kanazawa's tourism association notes that blossom carries on for one to two weeks after the city's has finished in higher places such as Gokayama and the foot of Mount Hakusan. In Takayama, Gifu Prefecture's tourism site says the trees of Shiroyama Park, a 20-minute walk from the station, begin to bloom in mid-April, and the 1,100-year-old Garyu-zakura, beside Hida-Ichinomiya Station on the Takayama Main Line, is at its best in mid- to late April. The spring Takayama Festival on 14 and 15 April falls in the same weeks, and JNTO warns that rooms are hard to come by, so book those nights first.

In the Northern Alps, Nagano's normal full bloom is 16 April, and Nagano Prefecture's tourism site puts the blossom in Hakuba's Oide Park, a 15-minute walk from JR Hakuba Station, in late April, with the snow-covered peaks behind it. The same site notes that many ski resorts are still open in April, so blossom and spring skiing can share a day; our Hakuba guide covers the lifts.

Hokkaido comes last. Sapporo's normals are 1 May for flowering and 6 May for full bloom, but in every year from 2021 to 2026 the city flowered between 15 and 23 April. Sapporo's tourism site says the peak usually arrives with Golden Week, from late April to early May, at Hokkaido Shrine, Maruyama Park, Nakajima Park and the cherry grove of Moerenuma Park; further south, Hakodate's Goryokaku Park has about 1,500 trees, best from late April to early May. JNTO warns that Golden Week fills trains and hotels, so book Hokkaido rooms as early as you book Kyoto. From Haneda, the flight to New Chitose, for Sapporo, takes about 90 minutes.

Hanami manners and park rules

Hanami, picnicking under the blossom, is the heart of the season for most people in Japan, and the manners are simple. JNTO's advice: spaces are first come, first served, and taking more room than you need is considered rude; public bins are scarce, so take your rubbish home; and the trees belong to the park, so never break off branches or pick the flowers. Go by train or bus, because parking spaces and taxis near the famous spots are hard to find in the season.

Each park adds its own rules. Chiyoda City bans parties, smoking and tripods on the Chidorigafuchi path; picnic sheets are allowed only in Chidorigafuchi Park and Sotobori Park, and you may not hold a space with an unattended sheet. Shinjuku Gyoen bans alcohol, stoves, loud music, tents and long occupation of the same lawn or bench, and in the blossom season forbids bringing in professional camera equipment to photograph a particular person. Osaka Castle Park has no bins at all, bans smoking and allows open flames only in designated areas.

A workable plan: ten days at the peak, or a later trip north

This is an editorial suggestion built on the normal dates. Shift it by a few days once the forecasts appear, keeping the order the same.

• Days 1–5, Tokyo (from about 25 March): Ueno Park soon after its 05:00 opening, Chidorigafuchi by day and again for the illumination, Shinjuku Gyoen on a weekday morning, and a night in Hakone if the city peaks early.
• Days 6–9, Kyoto (from about 30 March): the Philosopher's Path at first light, Maruyama Park in the evening, and one day for Osaka Castle Park or Himeji Castle on its earliest time slot.
• Days 10–11, Kanazawa (optional, from about 3 April): Kenroku-en early, on a free day if your dates fall right, the Ishikawa-mon Gate view and the evening illumination, then the Hokuriku shinkansen back to Tokyo for Haneda.
• A later trip (mid-April to early May): Kanazawa, then Takayama for Shiroyama Park and the festival on 14–15 April, Hakuba's Oide Park in late April, and a flight from Haneda to New Chitose for Sapporo's Maruyama Park and Hokkaido Shrine around the end of April.