I participated in the 9th Perth Japan Festival mentioned above. While promoting tourist destinations in various parts of Japan at such events, we are often asked questions about cherry blossoms, such as “When is the best time to see cherry blossoms?” , “Where can we view cherry blossoms?”. We are very pleasured that many people are interested in cherry blossoms in Japan.
I believe cherry blossoms are very familiar to Japanese people and have been loved for a long time. Japan’s oldest extant collection of poetry, Manyoshu, which was compiled from the late 7th to the late 8th century, contains poems about cherry blossoms. Even though we call them all as “cherry blossoms”, there are many different types of cherry blossoms according to colour, shape, and size.
When is the best time to see cherry blossoms? I will introduce the example of this year. According to the website of the Japan Meteorological Agency (as of 22 May, 11:30am), this year, many areas seem to have reached full bloom in late March or early April. Hokkaido area seems to have reached full bloom in late April or early May. In almost all areas, the full time of bloom was earlier than usual years. In addition, compared with last year, in some areas the full bloom was about the same time, while in others it was 10 days earlier. Therefore, the best time to see cherry blossoms depends on the area and weather that year.
Where can we view cherry blossoms? I believe each area in Japan has cherry blossom viewing spots. When I lived in Japan, I visited several cherry blossom viewing spots in the prefecture according to the full time of bloom. I have also visited an acquaintance in a distant prefecture and viewed the famous cherry blossoms over there.
When you visit Japan next time, it might be interesting to visit cherry blossom viewing spots that you have never been to before, according to the period of full bloom.
