The Ultimate guide to Cherry Blossom Season in Kyoto 2021

Popular hamani spots can get very busy, and people even line up early in the morning to get a good spot to put their mat under the blossoms. The country becomes a cherry blossom festival, in Kyoto and every other Japanese city. Sakura are symbols of renewal and beauty, so it’s not only about getting together to see them, but to appreciate their meaning and the significance in the calendar. 

It’s permitted to drink in public in Japan, so locals gather with their friends and family, enjoy some beers or sake, and share plates of tasty traditional dishes together, whether it’s a picnic brought from home or traditional sweets and street food picked up on the way. For the most authentic taste of sakura season, you have to try mochi, a sort of rice cake which during spring becomes sakura mochi. These traditional spring sweets are beautifully pink and wrapped in a sakura leaf, and you’ll find them at almost every wagashi (Japanese sweet) shop in Kyoto at this time of year.

But the best way to enjoy sakura season is to head to a hanami party! You can take part in an organised cherry blossom festival in Kyoto, but it’s more common for locals to bring a mat, a picnic and even a karaoke system and set up camp for the day or night under the most beautiful tree they can find. Viewing the cherry blossoms at night is called yozakura, and you’ll be able to enjoy a unique experience when they are transformed into other-wordly, magical spectacles that look as though they’re floating. 

The most festive hanami parties take place over the weekends and in the evening, and if you’re lucky you might be invited to join the locals as they celebrate. I think the best place to see cherry blossoms in Japan is, of course, in Kyoto! But we have so many beautiful gardens, parks and even just walks that I always find it hard to choose. 

I think these are some of the best Kyoto hanami spots – you’ll fall in love with any one of them that you visit.

This private garden is virtually unknown to foreigners, but the locals know it to be one of the best sakura spots in the city. Haratanien is a paradise of the most beautiful and even the best cherry blossoms in Japan, and although it can sometimes get a little crowded, the variety of cherry trees make the visit worthwhile. You can actually see both early and late blooming varieties of sakura, as well as one of the most magnificent shidare sakura (weeping cherry trees) in the whole city, which is a well kept local secret. 

This is the most famous yozakura (night time sakura viewing) spot in Kyoto. The oldest garden in the city, it’s not surprising that the 800 cherry trees who call the park home make for a truly spectacular experience. You’ll also hear it called “Gion’s Night-time Sakura”, and it’s renowned in particular for its hauntingly beautiful weeping cherry trees, which look, when they’re lit up at night, like ethereal, floating trees. But even during the day, the park is always packed with people hosting cherry blossom viewing parties, so if you’re looking for a cherry blossom festival in Kyoto, get here early and stay until after dark!

Kyoto’s river, Kamo-gawa, is also a popular hanami spot – this place really feels like a cherry blossom festival. Along its banks are hundreds of trees, and the best thing about the sakura along the river is that you can see the different blooming stages of the sakura in each season. Spring is undoubtedly the best time, but the trees along the southern stretches are often the first in Kyoto to bloom, whilst the northern end is popular because during the peak season, the blossoms are even more spectacular thanks to the huge size of the trees. Strolling along the river and seeing the beautiful sakura trees, you won’t notice the distance or time passing, and it’s a great way to discover the city as well as see the blossoms.

Also known as the Philosopher’s Walk, it’s not hard to see why this path along a beautiful stretch of canal got its name. Head here at dusk, as the crowds are leaving and the sakura are starting to be illuminated for the night, and enjoy a peaceful stroll along the canal. If you manage to time it right, when the trees are in full bloom the branches from each side touch, creating a magical tunnel that cocoons you in a pastel pink and a flurry of petals when the wind blows. 

If anywhere in Kyoto will express what sakura symbolically represent, it’s the Hironjo-jinja shrine, where the trees were planted during the Heian period of 794 – 1185. Important as a symbol of new life, vitality and beauty, the sheer variety of species here – there are between 50 and 60 – means you can see even the rarest sakura come to life one after another in an endless display of blossoms. People here will even tell you that this is where the cherry blossom season in Kyoto begins – there is one tree which is said to be the first, and once it blooms, sakura season has begun.