The Cherry Blossom Hunt in Japan and the 1 Mistake to Avoid

Pro tip number one: Don’t be like us.

Cherry Blossom Season is the Japanese version of Tulip Season in The Netherlands.

Crowds of tourists flock to the same square kilometers to admire nature’s gift in the form of beautiful flowers. What you expect to be a purely fun and rewarding experience, can easily turn out to be a bit less enjoyable. Want to admire the fleeting florals without getting disappointed?

Continue reading to find out the 1 mistake to avoid.

What you (stupidly) do

If you’re anything like Hannah, the moment your plane touches the ground at Narito Airport (Tokyo), you Google:

“Best places to enjoy the cherry blossoms in Tokyo”

And the pictures on these websites are breathtaking: empty parks with lines and lines of luscious cherry blossom trees overarching ponds and park benches. You can already imagine yourself standing in the middle of spacious walkways with bright, pink petals falling all around you.

So you choose a selection of options that looks promising (plus relatively close by) and the next day you set off to explore them.

What (surprisingly) goes wrong

Off you go to Ueno Park, which has the most cherry blossom trees in the entire city according to Google.

You take several metros for 30 minutes and walk another 15 to get to the hotspot where you’ll leisurely admire the sakuras at your own pace. Right?

What you’re greeted with at Ueno Park, Tokyo during Cherry Blossom Season.

Well… not really.

You obviously go to Japan during cherry blossom season to see, well, cherry blossoms. And you know what’s crazy? So does everyone else, including the locals.

Admiring the blossoms is a lot less enjoyable when having to queue for photos in certain spots. Or having to use long exposure shots just to notice where you’re standing in the picture versus the rest of the crowd.

Just waiting for Mike to set up our tripod so we can attempt some long exposure shots to pretend these people aren’t here with us as well.

What you should avoid

If you’re in Tokyo during the short window of the cherry blossom season, don’t look up which spots to visit.

Cherry blossom season is short, unpredictable, and varies significantly even per area of the city. On one side of Tokyo, you can bump into trees that have lost many petals and look quite sad, whilst, on the other side, you can find trees that are gorgeous and at their peak of blossoming. These peak blossom moments are as short as one day and it’s impossible to time your visit to a park perfectly.

And that’s why you shouldn’t.

Our second attempt: a rainy day and a tree that has passed its prime.

What you should do instead

The best cherry blossom encounters happen when you least expect them.

When you casually walk along the streets of Tokyo, cross a random road, and get mesmerized by the biggest and fullest cherry blossom tree you’ve come across since you arrived:

When you turn the corner during your first neighborhood stroll in Seoul and bump into your first cherry blossom tree of the trip:

When you stop at the wrong location on Jeju Island, explore a small, local park, and get blessed with beautifully pink sakura trees out of nowhere:

When traveling to Japan or South Korea during cherry blossom, just go and explore and serendipitously bump into beautiful sakuras along the way. Be on the lookout, but don’t go hunting for them in so-called “best spots”.

The most enjoyable, most special, and most memorable cherry blossom encounters happen when you least expect it.

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What would you do?

Have you ever dreamed of visiting Japan during cherry blossom season? Once you make it there, how likely are you to not look up the “best” places to go and just explore freely?

Let us know in the comments with the 🌸 emoji:

🌸 = I might still do a quick Google search

🌸🌸 = It’s not my usual style, but I’m intrigued

🌸🌸🌸 = 100% this is the way to go

🌸🌸🌸🌸 = Call me Dora the Spontaneous Explorer

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 = I wish I knew this before going there myself