Last Updated: May 4, 2025

Kitakami Tenshochi Park

A Top Cherry Blossom Festival

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

Every year, I travel north to Tohoku to chase the peak bloom of the cherry blossoms. You see, unlike in Tokyo, where the petals are all long gone by the middle of April, Japan’s northern reaches bloom a lot later due to the latitudinal difference with its capital city. Thus, if you’re willing to head north into the countryside of Tohoku, you can enjoy some truly amazing sights for cherry blossom viewing from late April to early May. It’s truly a travel hack that I wish more people knew about since peak season in Tokyo is painfully crowded these days.

This year, one of the spots that I stopped by on my northern-bound adventure was Kitakami Tenshochi Park. Located in the southern half of the massive Iwate Prefecture, this two-kilometer-long stretch of cherry blossom trees sits along the banks of the Kitakami River. By my rough estimate, Kitakami Tenshochi Park is home to as many as 10,000 trees which all start blooming in mid-April. Around this time, the locals hold their annual cherry blossom festival which features all sorts of food vendors and other such fun.

Now, while Kitakami Tenshochi Park and the rest of Kitakami City aren’t places that I would suggest that you go to simply for viewing cherry blossoms, it’s a convenient stop on…