Last Updated: Mar 11, 2024

The Miharu Takizakura

Japan’s Most Famous Cherry Blossom

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

It’s been over a decade since the triple disasters of 2011 wreaked havoc on Japan’s Tohoku region. Even today, many people still fear traveling to Fukushima Prefecture due to some ill-formed notion that they’d be at risk of radiation poisoning. Sadly, no matter how many years seem to pass, Fukushima just can’t seem to shake its bad rap. While the prefecture is indeed home to some truly amazing spots for cherry blossoms, the shadow of 2011 means that many international travelers are just going to opt to go elsewhere in Japan.

As stated time and time again here on this blog, Fukushima is a huge prefecture and even the questionable areas around the reactors are far away from most anything else. Thus, you shouldn’t be shy about wanting to venture up to Fukushima to see the cherry blossoms. After all, the prefecture is home to so many amazing spots to see Japan’s iconic springtime flowers. Despite going every year now since 2020, there are still a lot of areas in Fukushima left for me to visit during the spring.

While Fukushima does in fact offer many amazing locations for seeing spring’s cherry blossoms, nowhere can hold a candle to the famed Miharu Takizakura. Located to the east of Koriyama in the town of Miharu, this ancient…