Nara: Full Bloom

This week I've been doing cherry blossom reports while working my way northeast from Fukuoka, and today I arrived at Nara.

Following suit from my last two reports, Nara is also now at its best viewing period, as I saw at both Nara Park and Mount Wakakusayama, which were looking very pretty. We expect the blossoms to continue in their prime viewing state until April 9.

While a few cherry blossoms dotted the route from the station to Nara Park, the first main collection of them was at Himuro Shrine. The small shrine had a few different varieties of cherry, and was looking rather lovely.

My main objective, however, was the Nara Park lawn area beside Todaiji Temple. Here, just over 70% of the flowers were in bloom. Occasionally a flower would fall, only to be immediately eaten by one of the many deer!

From the park, I headed a bit further east to the North Gate of Mount Wakakusayama. There were plenty of cherry trees blooming at the base, but I paid the 150 yen entrance fee (open 9:00 to 18:00) to get a better view of the blossoms lining the trail.

Some of the trees here seemed a little behind, but overall were still at full bloom. However, the sparse few at the top of the mountain were significantly less advanced, only just beginning to approach their full bloom state. From the top, you can get a good view of the park and its blossoms down below.