Last Updated: Feb 9, 2024
Chasing the Cherry Blossoms
Following Peak Bloom in Japan
As anyone who has planned (or is currently planning) a springtime trip to Japan likely already knows, the cherry blossoms tend to reach their zenith in Tokyo around the end of March. While still somewhat chilly, this annual flowering is cause for much celebration in Japan’s capital city. Alas, one of the tragic realities about the cherry blossoms is that they only stay on the branch for a few weeks at max. While this makes for a great metaphor about the ephemeral nature of life, it also means that travelers need to perfectly nail the timing (which, by the way, is often finicky and subject to the weather).
Now, this may come as a bit of a surprise to some visitors unfamiliar with their geography but Japan is actually quite a lengthy country. Given that the various prefectures all fall at different latitudes, this means that not all prefectures reach full bloom at the same time. In fact, there is more than the difference of a full calendar quarter between the first sightings of the cherry blossoms and when the last pedals finally falls. Case in point, my fellow Japan-loving travel companion and I recently hit up much of northern Japan at the end of April and things were only just then reaching their peak.
