Category: Spring

Sakura 2016: Koganei Park

Visit Date: 03/26/2016 (Best Time: early to mid April)

Koganei Park (小金井公園) is an 80 hectares wide open park located in the western suburbs of Tokyo. It is about 40-60 minutes away from central Tokyo.

The park provides a wide variety of activities with its children’s park, tennis courts, broad expanse of grass covered fields, archery range, baseball field, steam locomotive display, and a lot more. The park is considered as one of the best 100 Sakura Spots in Japan with about 1,700 cherry trees planted around the park, where most of it are found in the Cherry Garden, located in front of the interesting Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum.

Koganei_Park_01 Entrance towards the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum.

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Sakura 2015: Showa Kinen Park

Visit Date: 04/05/2015 (Best Time: early to mid April)

Showa Kinen Park which is just about 60-minutes away from central Tokyo is indeed one of the best hanami spot with its 1,500 cherry trees and spacious lawns. The cherry trees in the park bloom a few days later than central Tokyo too, so it was at its peak during our visit.

Due to the ‘cloudy with some rain’ weather forecast, there were not much people picnicking in the Cherry Blossom Garden during our visit and we have plenty of space to choose from.

 Showakinen Sakura 2015 - 01 People picnicking and having fun around the clusters of cherry trees.

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Sakura 2015: Aoyama Cemetery 青山霊園

Visit Date: 04/02/2015 (Best Time: early April)

Aoyama Cemetery (青山霊園) is Japan’s first public cemetery. The straight road leading to the cemetery is lined up by hundreds of cherry trees. The area may be associated with the dead but observing the blooming cherry trees from a cemetery provides a unique experience.

sakura-2015-aoyama-cemetery01 The cherry trees along the side of the road are in full bloom.

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Sakura 2015: Chidorigafuchi Ryokudo 千鳥ヶ淵緑道

Visit Date: 03/31/2015 (Best Time: early to mid April)

Chidorigafuchi-ryokudo is a 700-meter-long walkway along the moat located at the northwest of the Imperial Palace. Over 200 cherry trees planted along the banks of the river create an excellent cherry viewing spot.

sakura-2015-chidorigafuchi01 It was still early for the row boats rental (from 11:00 – 17:30）.

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Japan Flower Festival 2015

The spring season in Japan means it is the time for flower viewing. Here are some of the flower festivals held in the country.

Hitachi Seaside Park Flowering 2015Hitachi Seaside Park Flowering 2015
March 21 to May 17, 2015

The 190 hectares park features variety of plants and flowers all year round making it a good destination not only during spring but the rest of the seasons.

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