I was worried about the possibility of missing out on sakura season in Japan. Weather can be a crap shoot and as sakura season is a short one, all you can do is make an educated guess (with the help of an almanac), cross your fingers and hope for the best.
As weather is unpredictable from year to year, we could’ve easily missed sakura season by a week or more.
Luckily (!) everything worked out. Even better than I had hoped, as the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka during the entire 10 days that we were there.
I just wish we had the opportunity to rent a paddle boat to sail under the flowering branches and amongst the fallen petals on the Chidorigafuchi moat at the Imperial Castle! There are about 260 Somei-yoshino and Oshima cherry trees that stretch alongside a 700 metres long promenade on the northwest side of the castle, and is a major cherry blossom spot in Chiyoda City. More than a million people visit this popular viewing spot during sakura season, so be prepared to wait for 2-3 hours for a boat (which we were not)! The boathouse is open at 9am but there would most likely be a line already.
Depending on which city we were in, we either caught them at its peak bloom or as the petals starting falling onto the ground. By the end of our trip, some of the blossoms were replaced by green leaves.
Bonus! Cherry blossoms trees were in full bloom when we got back to Vancouver. It was cherry blossoms galore for us this year.
Sidebar: as much as I was thankful to see the cherry blossoms in Japan, we were traveling in spring – the height of hay fever season. And man, did it hit me! I already know that I can be allergic to tree and grass pollen, but other than the odd year, it’s never really been an issue in Vancouver. Yet.
But the first couple of days in Tokyo, my nose would not stop itching. You know that feeling you get in your nose just when you’re about to sneeze? That, but no sneezing for the first 2 days. After acclimating a little, that gave way to constant runny eyes and sneezing fits. It was only when we were at the halfway point in our trip, did the hay fever abate.
And did you know that Japan actually issues “extreme/dry weather” notifications? That explains why my hands still looked and felt dry even when I had slathered on moisturizer.
None of which dampened our enthusiasm at being in Japan during cherry blossom season. It was just a bit of a surprise. However, I will take the hay fever again and again to experience all those beautiful blossoms.
View more photos of Japan on my Flickr album.
1 Comment
It was so pretty…
We were very lucky : )