When to go to Japan for the cherry blossom
· 2 min read · Hardo
The bloom moves north at roughly 20km a day and lasts about a week in any one place. Here is how we pick departure dates, and why they sometimes move.
Every year we are asked the same question in October: what dates should I book for the blossom? The honest answer is that nobody knows yet.
Sakura timing depends on winter temperatures. A cold January followed by a warm March pushes the bloom early; a mild winter can delay it. The Japan Meteorological Corporation issues its first forecast in January and revises it roughly every ten days until the front arrives.
What that means for booking. We set provisional departure dates in autumn and confirm them against the January forecast. If the revision moves by more than three days, we move the trip and absorb the cost of doing so. It is the only way to sell a blossom trip honestly.
Where the front goes. Blossom opens in Kyushu in the far south around 20 March, reaches Kyoto and Tokyo in the first days of April, and does not arrive in Hokkaido until early May. Full bloom follows first opening by about a week, and petals fall a week after that. You are aiming at a ten-day window.
The unglamorous advice. Go in the last week of March or the first week of April, book somewhere you would be happy to visit anyway, and accept that you may see buds or you may see snow. Kyoto in the rain with no blossom at all is still Kyoto.
