Tokyo During Cherry Blossom Season
- Lucy and the lens
- May 5, 2019
- 5 min read
The main motivation for visiting Japan in the spring was to enjoy sakura (cherry blossom) season, and experience hanami (the act of enjoying the cherry blossoms). Hanami usually equates to laying out a picnic blanket (or bright blue tarp!!) under the trees for a picnic, or strolling in a leisurely fashion along tree-lined avenues or rivers. These days, it also seems to involve many, many selfies as well as full-blown stylised kimono-clad photoshoots!
The window for cherry blossom viewing is all too brief, the period of full bloom being a week at most. We wanted to experience sakura season as fully as we could, and with full bloom coinciding with our three days in Tokyo, here's what we did!
1. Sakura afternoon tea at ANA Intercontinental Hotel
For about £40 per person you can experience a decadent and delicious celebration of all things cherry blossom at the ANA Intercontinental Hotel. We arrived to find a table complete with origami cherry blossom tree and a cute menu made to look like a traditional fan. We were first offered a cup of tea from a wide selection, and we were able to try a lot of different teas over the course of our meal.
The savoury snacks came first: we were treated to a selection of little fish, meat and vegetable bites, which all somehow ended up being pink! Then came the copious sweet treats. Sakura was the dominant flavour, with tarts, biscuits, cheesecake and other bite-sized cakes tasting subtly sweet and a tiny bit salty, a floral flavour that we loved. Ruby chocolate - literally chocolate made from the ruby cocoa bean that has a naturally pink colour - also made an appearance in chocolate truffles and mousse pots. Ruby chocolate is quite exclusive as it’s been around for less than two years: I’d never seen it before outside of Japan.
We also had a chance to try wagashi, a traditional Japanese confectionary made from natural ingredients such as fruit, bean paste and rice flour. Ours was a delicate pink flower shape, naturally.
2. Cherry Blossoms at the Meguro River
The Meguro River might be one of Tokyo’s most famous cherry blossom spots. Hundreds of trees line both sides of the river, and the reflections on the water, especially as it begins to grow dark and the pink lanterns that line its banks are lit, are as picture-perfect as you can possibly get.
We also experienced crowds like nothing we’d ever experienced in our lives, but the feel was more festival than frantic. Being Japan, there was a very efficient one-way system in place: you walk down the river on one side, and if you want to return back up the way you came you can’t just turn round and start walking, oh no: you have to cross a bridge to the opposite side of the street first.
We arrived just before sunset and installed ourselves in the middle of one of the bridges, and stayed until after sunset. Because we wanted to secure our spot, we didn’t get a chance to try the sakura-themed treats on offer, including strawberry champagne and mochi.
3. Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
We spent several hours at these beautiful and vast gardens in Shinjuku. For a small fee of around £3, you can explore the extensive cherry blossom groves as well as the other landscape gardens including a dramatic cedar avenue, a traditional Japanese garden with lake and bridges, and a topiary area. My favourite spots for viewing the blossoms were:
--by the lake, where cherry blossoms lined the water
-- across the lake, where the distinctive design of the NTT DoCoMo Yoyogi Building is reflected in the water
-- the peaceful cherry blossom orchard right at the back of the park, which most visitors seemed to miss because they were more focused on the cherry blossoms near the entrance
-- the topiary area, where cherry blossoms formed the backdrop to a fun display of topiary bushes
4. Sumida Park
Even though there was some reconstruction going on near this riverside park, it was still a very pretty green space featuring a lake with turtles, landscaped gardens and, yes, plenty of cherry blossom trees. The highlight of this park is its view of Tokyo Skytree, which peeks out through the blossoms from all sorts of different angles. There are blossoms on the other side of the river, too, where plenty of locals were picknicking when we visited around lunchtime.
5. Ueno Park
Ueno Park is one of the busiest parks for cherry blossom viewing. Its main avenue is thickly lined with blossoms on both sides, and there is also a raised garden area where people had already staked out their picnic spots under the trees. It was the first hanami spot we visited, on our first full day in Japan, and we were expecting more of a festival feel, with street food stalls - these weren't on offer, but everyone seemed to be having a great time regardless!
6. Senso-ji Temple
The well-kept gardens to the side of Tokyo's most famous temple featured a few cherry blossom trees that beautifully foregrounded the temple itself. For more about our visit to Senso-ji, click here!
7. The Ghibli Clock. This clock, designed by the founder of Studio Ghibli (more info in this post about visiting the clock via TeamLab Borderless) is located in a business district, and more specifically attached to the Nippon Television building. We discovered a secret avenue of cherry blossoms in the elevated gardens attached to the building on our way to view the clock. The contrast of blossoms with shiny glass skyscrapers was quite interesting. We had it all to ourselves, too!
8. Sakura-themed snacks.
I managed to get my hands on some hanami dango, special rice flour and red bean paste treats that come in spring colours: pink, white and green. Eating treats like these under the cherry blossoms is about as immersive as you can get! We also enjoyed sakura-flavoured ice cream, donuts, macarons, and even beer!
Other spots we didn't get to visit
-Chidorigafuchi Park. We wanted to visit this park based around the moat of Tokyo Castle, to enjoy a boat ride on the water. This sadly didn't fit into our schedule, however! You can rent a boat for 30 minute or 1 hour slots, and row yourselves beneath cherry blossom trees. I can imagine this is a stunning activity once the blossoms start to fall and settle on the surface of the water.
-Rikugien Garden. This is known for its weeping cherry blossoms. We heard that the best time to visit is at night when the blossoms are illuminated. We had to give this one a miss as the weeping blossoms bloom later than the other variety, and we were just too early for them!
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