In central Sapporo, there’s no lack of stunning locations to celebrate the festive but fleeting sakura season. You might start in Ōdōri Park, the main strip of green separating the city’s northern and southern halves, where scattered cherry blossom trees dot the lawns, then head a few blocks south to Nakajima Park, where you could rent a boat and cruise through a pink blanket of fallen petals on Iris Pond.

Maruyama Park, three miles west, attracts some of the city’s biggest crowds for hanami picnics (and you can sneak in some sightseeing as you walk the tree-lined path to Hokkaido Shrine). In contrast, the massive Moerenuma Park in the city’s northeastern outskirts is well worth the trip for its magnificent “Cherry Blossom Forest.”