Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites

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Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites
Sakura along Meguro River

Japan is the land of cherry blossom trees. When the cherry blossom season occurs in Tokyo, it is a huge event that is widely celebrated by everyone. Hanami is the Japanese name for “flower viewing” and it is traditional to have a large picnic party under the blossoms with friends, family, and especially co-workers. There are many varieties of cherry trees (sakura) and some of them have different blooming times. The most common type of Sakura trees comes from cloned cuttings, which (by design) makes most of the cherry trees in Japan bloom at basically the same time. The blooming of the cherry trees is closely followed as they start to bloom at the beginning of spring in the south of the country and move up to the north as the temperature rises.

Tokyo has cherry blossom trees in virtually every park in the city, from the smallest park tucked away in a corner lot in a residential area to the largest parks in the city that might have over a thousand cherry blossom trees. Here is a list of Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites.

Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites

Shinjuku Gyoen

Shinjuku Gyoen is the most beautiful park in Tokyo and might be one of the most picturesque parks in the world. For those who love the cherry blossom trees, there are about 1,100 trees here. This park has numerous early and late-blooming cherry blossom trees, which provide an extended cherry blossom-viewing season that occurs from around the middle of March until well into April. This park is a collection of three different gardens. A Japanese landscaped garden, a French landscaped garden, and an English landscaped garden. There is also a large greenhouse that contains many tropical and subtropical plants and flowers. Shinjuku Gyoen features many wide-open lawns, several ponds, forested areas, and several structures including a restaurant, an information center, and an art gallery. Location: 11 Naitomachi, Shinjuku City, Tokyo Train Access: Shinjuku Station, 5 min walk Google Maps

Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites
Sakura in bloom at Shinjuku Gyoen

Ueno Park

Ueno Park is the oldest, largest, and one of the most popular parks in the city. There are around 1,200 cherry blossom trees that line the park’s central pathways and fill the park. In the springtime, Ueno Park is one of the most popular and lively parks in Tokyo during the cherry blossom season. Inside the park, there are temples, shrines, pagodas, a small event amphitheater, Shinobazu Pond, Benten-do Temple, some of Japan’s finest museums, Ueno Zoo, and Japan’s first zoological garden. The park has a lot of greenery and it has nearly 9,000 trees that come in many varieties. Location: Ueno Park Train Access: Ueno Station, 3 min walk Google Maps

Yoyogi Park

Yoyogi Park is one of Tokyo’s largest and most well-known parks. It is a popular cherry blossom viewing spot in the spring with over 700 cherry trees. It has wide-open lawns, ponds, and forested areas. Inside Yoyogi Park, on weekends and holidays, you can find some of Tokyo’s largest entertainment festivals with, stage acts, food trucks, food stalls, and vendors selling a variety of goods. It is a great place for jogging, picnicking, partying, and other outdoor activities. This park is famous for its large Ginko tree forest, which turns intensely golden in the fall. Yoyogi Park is one of the most popular parks in Tokyo. Location: 2-1 Yoyogikamizonocho, Shibuya City, Tokyo Train Access: Harajuku Station, 3 min walk Google Maps

Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites

Koishikawa Korakuen

Koishikawa Korakuen is a stunning traditional Japanese garden. The garden has several different kinds of cherry trees and there are beautiful cherry blossom trees that surround the pond in the center of the garden. Koshikawa Korakuen garden was laid in 1629, during the Edo period. It is one of the oldest gardens in Tokyo and is popular for its creation of famous Japanese and Chinese sceneries in miniature size. The garden is enjoyable at all times of the year. The fall season from mid-November to the beginning of December is an especially nice time to enjoy season-changing autumn leaves. Location: 1-6-6 Koraku, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo Train Access: Iidabashi Station, 8 min walk Google Maps

Inokashira Park

Inokashira Park is a very popular park and it can be very busy especially on weekends, holidays and for special events. There are over 500 cherry trees that surround a large pond and at night time they are illuminated with lights and they are especially colorful. The park revolves around a large pond, centered in the middle of the park surrounded by many kinds of trees and vegetation. Inokashira Park has a petting zoo, a small aquarium, funny-shaped rental boats, children’s playground facilities, and an event stage. On weekends and holidays, the park has many kinds of vendors, musicians, artists, and street performers. Location: Inokashira Park Train Access: Kichijoji Station, 6 min walk Google Maps

Rikugien Gardens

Rikugien Gardens was built over 300 years ago, during the Edo period. The Rikugien Gardens are very popular during the cherry blossom season and the centerpiece is a large-sized weeping Japanese cherry blossom tree, which is a symbol of Rikugien Gardens. This tree is about 15 meters high and about 20 meters wide and it blooms like a waterfall. At night when it is lit up is it quite a sight.

The garden’s name means “Six Poems Garden.” At the time of its construction, this garden was considered one of the most beautiful Japanese landscaped gardens in the world. The garden revolves around a large pond with walking trails and bridges that features 88 different miniature scenes depicting specific historical poems. The visitors can also feed the giant Koi fish in the ponds. The park is famous for azalea flowers, which bloom from around mid-April to the beginning of May. Location: 6 Chome-16-3 Honkomagome, Bunkyo City, Tokyo Train Access: Komagome Station, 5 min walk Google Maps

Sumida Park

Sumida Park is located along the Sumida River that flows through east Tokyo. On both sides of the Sumida River, there are around 1,000 cherry blossom trees lining both banks of the river. Sumida Park is very popular at the beginning of spring when the cherry blossom trees burst into blooming mode. This park is also a great place to view the largest fireworks show in Tokyo, the Sumida fireworks festival which occurs on the last weekend in July. Location: Sumida Park Train Access: Asakusa Station, 8 min walk Google Maps

Asukayama Park

Asukayama Park is considered to be the oldest and most famous of Tokyo’s cherry blossom sites. This park has been a popular cherry blossom park since the Edo period. There are over 600 cherry trees and they are illuminated each evening by a collection of lanterns. There is an Asukayama and Paper Museums at the park and there is also a monorail that ferries visitors to the top of the hill above the park. Location: 1 Chome-1-3 Oji, Kita City, Tokyo Train Access: Oji Station, 4 min walk Google Maps

Chidorigafuchi

Chidorigafuchi is a very popular place to see cherry blossoms in Tokyo. The gardens around Chidorigafuchi consist of moats and waterways of the former Edo Castle which is located northwest of the Imperial Palace. There is a 700-meter-long tunnel filled with cherry trees and there are over 200 cherry trees along the promenade that decorate the moats. The best way to view the cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi is by boat. Visitors can rent boats and paddle around the moats surrounded by beautiful cherry blossoms day and night. At the end of the cherry blossom season, the petals of cherry blossoms cover the surface of the water which creates quite a sight. Location: 1 Chome-2 Kojimachi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo Train Access: Kudanshita Station, 5 min walk Google Maps

Tokyo Imperial Gardens with sakura over the water

Showa Memorial Park

The Showa Memorial Park is a massive park that is really a super park that was once the site of an airbase. There are around 1,500 cherry blossom trees and this park is popular during cherry blossom season. This park has large wide-open lawns, many hills, a pond, and other water features. This park has a wide range of things to do. There are forests and wooded areas with walking paths, large open grass areas, Japanese and Western-style gardens, a large children’s play area, museums, sports facilities, miniature golf, bike, and pedal boat rentals, a BBQ area, a summer water park, and other games and activities. Location: 3173 Midorimachi, Tachikawa-shi, Tokyo Train Access: Tachikawa Station, 15 min walk Google Maps

Kasai Rinkai Park

Kasai Rinkai Park is located on the waterfront in the eastern part of Tokyo Bay and built on reclaimed land and it is next to Tokyo Sea Life Park. This park has around 800 cherry trees and is a popular place to visit during the cherry blossom season. This park was developed as a conservation effort to restore and preserve the natural Tokyo Bay habitat. There are many walking paths, wide-open lawns, two beaches, a Japanese garden, a lotus pond, a very large Ferris wheel (The second largest in Japan), a seabird sanctuary, and an observation building. There is a popular bird-watching area that includes the ponds and tidal areas. Location: 6-2 Rinkaicho, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo Train Access: Kasai Rinkai Koen Station Google Maps

Omiya Park

Omiya Park is located just north of Tokyo. This is a great place to see the cherry blossoms explode during the spring. There are over 1,000 cherry blossom trees lining paths that lead through this large park. There is a boating lake that allows visitors to rent a paddleboat to move around to get some optimum viewing of the cherry blossom trees. At nighttime, the cherry trees are illuminated by lights and this creates a very scenic sight. Location: Saitama, Omiya Ward, Takahanacho, 4 Train Access: Kita-Omiya Station, a few min walk Google Maps

Koganei Park

Koganei Park is very large. There are over 2,000 cherry blossom trees on its grounds and this is one of Tokyo’s most favored spots for cherry blossom viewing. It has wide-open lawns, walking paths, and rental bikes available for people of all ages. There is a sledding hill with rental sleds. There is also a BBQ area (reservations are required). The park also houses the open-air branch of the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Location: 1-13-1 Sekinomachi, Koganei-shi, Tokyo Train Access: Kichijoji Station, Bus 73, 1 min walk Google Maps

Meguro River

The Meguro River from Ikejiri Ohashi to Gotanda has about 4 Kilometers of a walkway along the river with about 800 cherry blossom trees. The area around Ikejiri Ohashi and Naka Meguro is the most popular part of the stretch of cherry blossom trees. There are lanterns and the cherry blossom trees are illuminated with lights at night along the river. During the cherry blossom season, there are festivals with food stalls and the area is very festive with thousands of visitors who come to view the cherry blossom trees every year. Location: Ikejiri Ohashi – Naka Meguro – Gotanda Train Access: Ikejiri Ohashi, Naka Meguro Station, Gotanda Station, a few min walk Google Maps

Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites
Sakura Meguro River

Koishikawa Botanical Garden

Koishikawa Botanical Garden is a large botanical garden, maintained by Japan’s leading university, the University of Tokyo. This is a fantastic place to visit during cherry blossom season in the last few weeks of March, as the garden hosts a wide variety of cherry blossom trees. This allows for an extended cherry blossom viewing season that lasts into April. The Botanical garden displays a few thousand trees and plant species and includes a beautiful traditional Japanese garden. Location: 3-7-1 Hakusan, Bunkyo, Tokyo Train Access: Myogadani Station, 10 min walk Google Maps

Mt. Takao

Mt. Takao is a forested mountain that is located west of Tokyo. There is a good collection of cherry blossom trees that line the hiking paths through the mountainside. This is very popular and on weekends it can be very busy. The mountain and the surrounding area have been considered sacred for more than 1000 years. Near the mountain’s summit is the impressive Yakuo-in temple. Here the visitors stop there to pray to Shinto-Buddhist mountain gods for good fortune. There is a large collection of statues of various gods scattered around the mountain. This is a popular hiking spot due to its close proximity to the city of Tokyo.

The area has a large assortment of well-organized, numbered, hiking trails that lead up to the top of the mountain range. For the people who do not wish to hike to the top of the mountain, there is a cable car lift that visitors can ride that will cut the time in half. There is an observation deck from where you can look out over the city of Tokyo and on clear days you can get great views of Mt. Fuji. Location: Takaomachi, Hachioji, Tokyo Train Access: Takaosan Station, 30 min walk Google Maps

Hibiya Park

Hibiya Park is a large park that has around 3,100 trees. This park has only about 50 cherry blossom trees but it is very scenic, centrally located, and popular during the cherry blossom season. It is a popular place in the fall to see the many colors of the changing tree leaves. There are over fifty types of different kinds of Japanese trees planted in Hibiya Park. These trees have been donated by every prefecture of Japan. The dogwood trees in the park are a gift from the United States after Japan gave the gift of the cherry blossom trees to Washington D.C. that now line the Potomac River. Hibiya Park is also home to Japan’s first Western-style flower gardens which are maintained to this day. The flowers in the park are managed so that at least one variety of flower is in bloom, during each month of the year. Location: 1-6 Hibiyakoen, Chiyoda City, Tokyo Train Access: Hibiya Station, 3 min walk Google Maps

Komazawa Olympic Park

Komazawa Olympic Park is a very large park that was constructed in 1964 for the Summer Olympic Games. There are about 200 cherry trees at this park and it is very scenic in the springtime to enjoy the cherry blossoms. It is considered a sports park that blends forests and greenery with athletic facilities. The Komazawa Olympic Park holds many sporting events. There are cycling and jogging routes around the park, a dog run area, a skateboard park, and an assortment of other entertainment options. There are three separate areas that have been created for kids. The Pig, Squirrel, and Horse parks. Each one of these small parks has unique areas that are specifically made for children to play. Location: 1-1 Komazawakoen, Setagaya City, Tokyo Train Access: Komazawa Daigaku Station, 10 min walk Google Maps

Tokyo Area Cherry Blossom Sites

Kinuta Park

Kinuta Park once was a golf course and it is a very large park. There are about 500 cherry blossom trees that are of three different varieties of cherry blossom trees, and this offers an extended viewing season that goes into April. This is a great place to visit to see the cherry blossom trees without the massive crowds that fill up some of the other parks. This is also a very popular park with families. This park is full of wide-open lawns, a cycling course, a bird sanctuary, a children’s playground, and the Setagaya Art Museum. Location: 1-1 Kinutakoen, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo Train Access: Yoga Station, 11 min walk Google Maps

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