Cherry Blossom Reports 2016

Season Summary
Due to above-average temperatures, the 2016 cherry blossom season took place several days earlier than average except in some areas of Kyushu and Shikoku where it followed a relatively average pace. Northern Japan saw a particularly early season, with some cities enjoying the seasonal delight up to ten days earlier than average.
Best Viewing (2016)
Tokyo
March 30 - April 6
Kyoto
April 1 - 6

Sapporo: Full Bloom

Full Bloom
After the cold end to April, the weather across Hokkaido is starting to warm up (finally!) I was in Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido, to check out the city’s popular cherry blossom spots for our last...
By Raina Ong·

Noboribetsu

Still Closed
Today I headed for Noboribetsu Onsen, which about midway between Hakodate and Sapporo. The hot spring town lies at an elevation of about 200 meters above sea level and is Hokkaido’s most famous onsen resort. Due to...
By Raina Ong·

Matsumae

Full Bloom
Continuing my cherry blossom tour of southern Hokkaido, I headed to Matsumae today to check out the cherry blossoms in Matsumae Park. Over 10,000 cherry trees of more than 250 different varieties can be seen around...
By Raina Ong·

Hakodate

Full Bloom
The japan-guide cherry blossom reporting has finally reached Hokkaido, almost six weeks after our first report in Tokyo. Today, I am in Hakodate, a popular harbor town in southern Hokkaido, to check out a couple of...
By Raina Ong·

Hirosaki

Petals Starting To Fall
Today, I visited Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture for our last report from Japan’s largest island of Honshu, before moving on to Hokkaido. The cherry blossom season is over in the southern and central regions of Japan...
By Raina Ong·

Kakunodate

Full Bloom
Rounding up this week with a Friday vist to Kakunodate, a popular cherry blossom spot in the Tohoku Region. The former castle town in Akita Prefecture has weeping cherry trees in the samurai district and a river lined...
By Raina Ong·

Hirosaki

Approaching Full Bloom
With the cherry blossom season underway in the northern Tohoku Region, we move our reporting there to check out the state of the blossoms. Aomori City reached full bloom today, but the season has yet to reach its peak...
By Raina Ong·

Kitakami

Full Bloom
The cherry blossom season has arrived in northern Japan, and in certain spots around the northern Tohoku Region the cherry blossoms have even started reaching full bloom....
By Joe Mignano·

Mount Fuji

Past Peak
Today I headed back to the Fuji Five Lakes area four days after my last visit to check out how the blossoms have progressed since. Most of the commonly seen mainstream Somei Yoshino cherry trees were at full bloom...
By Raina Ong·

Mount Fuji

Full Bloom
Today I headed to the Fuji Five Lakes area, about two hours west of Tokyo, to check out the state of the cherry blossoms there. While the cherry blossoms have mostly finished around Tokyo and Kyoto, the cherry trees...
By Raina Ong·

Aizu

Petals Starting To Fall
The cherry blossom season is now moving its way through northern Japan as cherry blossoms around the Tohoku Region are quickly reaching their peak timing. While blossoms around northern Tohoku...
By Joe Mignano·

Kyoto

End of Season
Today I headed back to Kyoto to cover what is likely to be our final cherry blossom report from western Japan this year. After today’s report we will be focusing our attention toward the Tohoku Region with a little...
By Scott·

Hikone

Past Peak
As the main cherry blossom season comes to a close around much of the country, we continue to turn our attention toward spots that bloom later in the season. One of these spots is Hikone Castle in Shiga Prefecture,...
By Scott·

Tokyo

End of Season
Today I visited a few of the best cherry blossoms spots in Tokyo to check out the state of the blossoms since Scott visited on April 8. The relatively strong winds over the weekend combined with warm weather may have...
By Raina Ong·

Yoshino

End of Season
Today I headed down to Mount Yoshino (Yoshinoyama) in Nara Prefecture to follow up on Raina’s report from April 5th. The area is one of Japan’s best cherry blossom spots as the town’s mountainslopes are covered in...
By Scott·

Sendai

Full Bloom
As the cherry blossom season is winding down in western Japan and the sakura front is moving its way north towards its final destination of Hokkaido, our team...
By Joe Mignano·

Kyoto

Past Peak
As the main cherry blossom season has come to an end around Kyoto and the majority of western Japan, the focus of our coverage in this part of the country shifts to the spots that feature later blooming cherry...
By Scott·

Tokyo

Past Peak
Everyone’s been worried about the storms that swept through much of Japan yesterday, as the blossoms around the cities that reached full bloom a week ago now are at the point where they are vulnerable to being knocked...
By Scott·

Kyoto

Petals Starting To Fall
The heavy rain and strong winds across the country yesterday wrecked havoc on many of the cherry trees, especially the common mainstream Somei Yoshino cherry trees, in southern and central Japan. In just a day of rain...
By Raina Ong·

Matsumoto

Full Bloom
After a strong rainstorm deluged much of the country yesterday, today our team is reporting from locations all over Japan to get the latest post-storm conditions of the cherry blossoms....
By Joe Mignano·

Odawara

Petals Starting To Fall
While yesterday’s weather took a bit of a toll on the cherry blossoms in many regions across western and central Japan, it wasn’t as destructive as feared. Petals are definitely starting to fall in cities such as...
By Jess McCullough·

Nara

Petals Starting To Fall
After about a week of peak cherry blossom viewing throughout western and central Japan, heavy rain and wind today has taken a toll on the blossoms across much of the country...
By Joe Mignano and Raina Ong·

Kyoto

Full Bloom
It’s been another beautiful spring day in the Kansai Region today, perfect for catching cherry blossoms in full bloom across the region and most of western and central Japan....
By Joe Mignano·

Kanazawa

Full Bloom
The japan-guide.com 2016 cherry blossom reporting has been going on for 18 days now, since March 20. In this span of time, we have seen the cherry blossom season start and reach full bloom from the southern cities of...
By Raina Ong·

Yoshino

Full Bloom
We are now midway through the cherry blossom season, and many of the cherry trees in the cities from Kyushu to the Kanto Region have reached full bloom (mankai). This week is the best viewing period for many of the...
By Raina Ong·

Fukushima

Approaching Full Bloom
The cherry blossom season around many of Japan’s major cities has been at the peak now for a few days, however wind and rain threatens to do some damage to the petals and may hasten the end of the season a little...
By Scott·

Osaka

Full Bloom
It’s full bloom for cherry blossoms around southern and central Japan this week as the 2016 sakura season continues. Many of the best sakura viewing spots in major cities like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka...
By Joe Mignano·

Kamakura

Petals Starting To Fall
The cherry blossom front has been sweeping through the country, as city after city throughout southern and central Japan have reached their peak. This past weekend and into this week the cherry blossoms are at their...
By Jess McCullough·

Kyoto

Full Bloom
We are now midway through the cherry blossom season, and many of the cherry trees in the cities from Kyushu to the Kanto Region have reached full bloom (mankai). Kanazawa and Takamatsu were a couple of the latest...
By Raina Ong·

Tokyo

Full Bloom
Cherry blossoms all over southern and central Japan--from Kagoshima and Kumamoto as far north as Tokyo and Kanazawa--have just reached full bloom over the last week and weekend, bringing us into what might be this sakura season’s peak week in those regions...
By Joe Mignano·

Tokyo

Full Bloom
After almost two weeks since a slightly earlier-than-average opening, I am excited to report that cherry blossoms all over Tokyo have started to reach full bloom today...
By Joe Mignano·

Kyoto

Approaching Full Bloom
As more and more sights reach full bloom across Japan, it seems that most areas are hitting their peak about 3-4 days earlier than in an average season. This is not nearly as early as their opening dates suggested -...
By Scott·

Okayama

Full Bloom
After five days of warm weather, the temperatures across the country took a small dip today. However, the higher temperatures over the past few days really encouraged the cherry blossoms to bloom and a few more cities...
By Raina Ong·

Hiroshima

Approaching Full Bloom
With the warm weather all week, lots of cherry trees have been flowering and from chasing the openings of the season, we have progressed to best viewing periods for the sakura season. Nagoya was one of the first few...
By Raina Ong·

Himeji

Blossoms Opening
We’ve now reached the point in the season where most of southern/western Japan has entered the best period for viewing the cherry blossoms (which starts slightly before full bloom), and cities have started to pop over...
By Scott·

Onomichi

Blossoms Opening
With the warm weather all week, lots of cherry trees have been flowering and from chasing the openings of the season, we have progressed to best viewing periods for the sakura season. Nagoya was one of the first few...
By Raina Ong·

Osaka

Blossoms Opening
The sakura season is starting to speed up as sights across the country continue racing toward the peak. Today Fukuoka became the first major city to have its cherry blossoms reach full bloom, while several other...
By Scott·

Miyajima

Approaching Full Bloom
The cherry blossom season has started in over two thirds of the country except for the Tohoku Region and Hokkaido. The warm spring weather over the last three days saw temperatures rising to about 20 degrees Celsius,...
By Raina Ong·

Iwakuni

Blossoms Opening
The cherry blossom season has started in over two thirds of the country except for the Tohoku Region and Hokkaido. The warm spring weather over the last three days saw temperatures rising to about 20 degrees Celsius,...
By Raina Ong·

Tokyo

Blossoms Opening
After a brief progress-stalling cold spell, temperatures rose today across Japan, kickstarting cherry blossoms back into full gear towards what might be a slightly earlier...
By Joe Mignano·

Kyoto

Blossoms Opening
As the cherry blossoms continue to progress across the bulk of Japan, the trees around some of the more southern cities, such as Kumamoto, are starting to hit their best viewing period. While Raina continues reporting...
By Scott·

Kumamoto

Approaching Full Bloom
After the brief cold spell last week, the temperatures have warmed up considerably this week all across the country and the cherry blossoms are progressing towards reaching their peak. None of the cities have reached...
By Raina Ong·

Nagoya

Blossoms Opening
The cherry trees have by now opened across a good number of Japan’s major cherry blossom sites, save for those in the more northern Tohoku and Hokkaido regions. Much of the county experienced a cold spell over the...
By Scott·

Fukuoka

Blossoms Opening
Today I find myself in Fukuoka in Kyushu Prefecture. It has been ten days since the cherry blossom season was declared open on March 19 in the city, but development from opening to full bloom is progressing slowly in...
By Raina Ong·

Tokyo

Blossoms Opening
It’s been almost a week since the cherry blossom season officially opened in Tokyo. It usually takes about a week for the flowers to reach full bloom after opening. However, the weather in the past week was slightly...
By Raina Ong·

Kyoto

Just Opened
The cherry blossom season has begun and blossoms are beginning to open a bit early across western Japan and in some of the country’s major cities...
By Joe Mignano·

Tokyo

Just Opened
Cherry blossom reporting is now fully underway, and from here on out we’ll be bringing you nearly daily sakura reports from across the country. Today sees us back in Tokyo to check out a few more of the city’s best...
By Scott·

Fukuoka

Just Opened
With cities just starting to officially declare their cherry blossoms open, our team has hit the road to bring our readers up-to-date coverage of Japan’s best cherry blossom spots. Today, I headed to...
By Joe Mignano·

Tokyo

Just Opened
The 2016 cherry blossom season has gotten underway! From today, the japan-guide.com team will be reporting from popular cherry blossom spots across the country about the blossoms’ current state until the seasonal...
By Stefan Schauwecker·

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