Book nowLate March and early April are Japan's busiest weeks: book the hotels and the ryokan as soon as you have dates, and reserve Shinkansen seats when they open.
Hours, prices, timetables and coordinates are from general knowledge; the blossom moves each year, so follow the forecast and re-check the official sites.
For about ten days the cherries flower; parks fill with picnics, and moats, canals and castles are lit at night.
Dates from general knowledge — check the official site
Fourteen days: Tokyo's parks, rivers and moats, a night under Fuji, four days of Kyoto's temples in blossom, Hiroshima and the shrine in the sea, Himeji Castle, Osaka and Nara.
Land at 14:00, an IC card and the train to Shinjuku. Evening in the alleys of Omoide Yokocho and Golden Gai.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥700 each
Get a Suica or PASMO card at the airport, or add one to your phone's wallet, and load ¥5,000. Keikyu to Shinagawa, then the JR Yamanote line to Shinjuku, about an hour. The limousine bus goes to the big Shinjuku hotels' doors for about ¥1,400.
A lane of tiny yakitori counters by Shinjuku station's tracks, left from the post-war black market.
¥3,000–4,000 each
Most counters seat eight; some charge a small cover. Point at the skewers on the grill, order a beer, move on to the next.
Six alleys of some 200 bars the size of a room, each seating five or six.
cover ¥500–1,000
Look for signs in English that welcome visitors. An early night after: tomorrow starts at 9.
Shinjuku Gyoen's cherries at opening, the Meiji shrine's forest, Harajuku and Omotesando, and Shibuya's crossing from the roof at sunset.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →An imperial garden of 58 hectares with Japanese, English and French sections and about a thousand cherry trees of many kinds, flowering one after another.
about ¥500 eachday's highlight
Ten minutes' walk from the hotel; be at the Shinjuku gate for the 9:00 opening. Alcohol is not allowed, so picnics are calm. The Japanese garden's pond and teahouse are the best of it.
Two hours.
A Shinto shrine of 1920 to the Meiji Emperor, reached through a forest of 100,000 trees planted for it.
free
One stop on the Yamanote line to Harajuku. Walk under the great wooden torii; on Saturdays you may see a wedding procession.
Takeshita Street is the narrow lane of teenage fashion and crêpes; Omotesando beside it is a tree-lined avenue of architects' shop buildings.
lunch ¥1,500–2,500 each
Lunch in the back streets of Omotesando, then walk down to Shibuya, 25 minutes, or one stop on the train.
The scramble crossing outside Shibuya station, crossed by up to 3,000 people at a time, and the open-air roof of the Scramble Square tower 230 metres above it.
about ¥2,500–3,000 eachbook
Cross the scramble once, then up to the roof for a slot before sunset, about 17:55. On a clear evening Fuji shows in the west. Dinner in Shibuya after.
Senso-ji before the crowds, the cherry-lined Sumida river, Ueno Park's hanami, Yanaka's old streets, and the lit moat at Chidorigafuchi.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in 628, entered through the Thunder Gate with its giant red lantern and a lane of stalls.
free
Forty minutes by metro. The grounds are always open; before nine you have the gate and the main hall nearly to yourselves. The stalls open around ten.
Riverside promenades lined with about 600 cherry trees, with the Tokyo Skytree across the water.
free
Five minutes from Senso-ji. Walk north along the west bank and back by the east.
Tokyo's best-known hanami park: an avenue of some 800 cherries under which companies and families spread blue sheets for picnics.
freecrowds
On a blossom Sunday it is a festival. Buy a bento and beer and join in. The Shinobazu pond at the south end has rowing boats.
A quarter of wooden houses and small temples that survived the war and the 1923 earthquake, with a cherry-lined cemetery and an old shopping street.
free
Fifteen minutes' walk north of Ueno through Yanaka cemetery's cherry avenue. Croquettes and cat-shaped doughnuts on Yanaka Ginza. Then back to the hotel to rest.
A moat of the Imperial Palace with a 700-metre path under overhanging cherries, lit after dark in blossom season.
freeday's highlight
Metro to Kudanshita. The path is one-way and moves slowly; the branches reach down to the water. Rowing boats are hired by day only.
Dinner in Kagurazaka, 15 minutes north, a hillside of lanes and French and Japanese restaurants.
Breakfast at the Tsukiji outer market, teamLab Planets in Toyosu, a tea at Hamarikyu, and the Meguro River's cherries with their lanterns at dusk.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The streets of stalls and counters that stayed when Tokyo's fish market moved to Toyosu: sushi, tamagoyaki omelette, oysters, knives.
¥2,000–4,000 each
Graze from stall to stall; eat at the stall, not walking. Many close by early afternoon.
A digital art museum walked barefoot, through knee-deep water and rooms of light, mirrors and floating flowers.
about ¥4,000 eachbook a time
Twenty minutes by the Yurikamome line. Wear shorts or trousers that roll up. An hour and a half.
A shogun's duck-hunting garden on the bay, with a tidal pond and a teahouse on an island, ringed by skyscrapers.
about ¥300 each, tea ¥1,000
Matcha and a sweet in the Nakajima teahouse over the pond. Then back to rest.
A narrow canal in Nakameguro lined for four kilometres with cherries that meet over the water, hung with lanterns in blossom season.
freeday's highlight
Train to Nakameguro. The stretch from the station towards Ikejiri-Ohashi is the best. Stalls sell strawberry sparkling wine. Dinner in Nakameguro's cafés and izakaya after; book on a blossom evening.
The 8:30 Fuji Excursion from Shinjuku, two hours. The Chureito Pagoda's view of Fuji, the lake's north shore, and a ryokan dinner and bath.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥4,000 eachreserved seats
A limited express straight to Kawaguchiko, about two hours; sit on the right for Fuji at the end. Send big bags ahead to Kyoto with a takkyubin delivery from the hotel the night before, about ¥2,500 a case.
A five-storey red pagoda on a hillside above Fujiyoshida, built as a war memorial in 1963, with Mount Fuji framed behind it.
freeday's highlight398 steps
Get off the Excursion at Shimoyoshida, three stops before the end, and walk 10 minutes to the steps. The famous view is from the deck above the pagoda. Its cherries usually flower in early April, a week or two after Tokyo's, so they may be in bud.
Fuji is clearest in the morning; by afternoon clouds often cover it.
The lake's north shore faces Fuji across the water, with a lakeside park and paths.
lunch ¥1,500 each
Hoto, thick noodles in a miso-pumpkin stew, is the local lunch. The Retro Bus from Kawaguchiko station loops the north shore. Walk the shore at Oishi Park.
A ryokan is a Japanese inn: tatami rooms, a yukata robe, a multi-course kaiseki dinner served at a set hour, and hot-spring baths.
¥45,000–75,000 for two with dinner
Check in and bathe before dinner, usually at 18:00 or 18:30. Wash at the stools first, then soak; tattoos may need a private bath. Futons are laid out while you eat.
Fuji at dawn from the lake, breakfast, the bus to Mishima and the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Gion's Shirakawa canal in the evening, its cherries lit.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Mount Fuji, 3,776 metres, still snow-covered in spring, seen across the lake as the sun reaches it.
free
Sunrise about 5:40. From the shore in front of the ryokan, or from the room. Then the morning bath and breakfast.
about ¥14,000 eachreserved seats
The highway bus from Kawaguchiko station to Mishima station takes about two hours past Fuji's flank. From Mishima, the Hikari to Kyoto takes about two hours; reserve seats. Ekiben, station bento, for lunch on board.
A covered street of some 120 food stalls, Kyoto's kitchen for 400 years: pickles, tofu, sweets, knives.
¥1,500–3,000 each
Taxi from the station, 15 minutes. Graze in Nishiki; it closes around 17:00.
A stone-edged canal in Gion lined with willows, cherries and teahouses, lit at night; Hanamikoji is the street of geisha houses nearby.
freeday's highlight
The cherries along the Shirakawa are lit after dark in blossom week. On Hanamikoji, you may see a maiko on her way to an appointment; do not follow or photograph them up close, and keep out of the private lanes, where it is fined.
Dinner in Pontocho, the lantern-lit alley by the river.
Kiyomizu-dera at 6:00 before the crowds, the slopes of Sannenzaka, Kodai-ji's garden, and Maruyama Park's weeping cherry lit at night.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A temple on a wooded hillside whose main hall stands on a wooden stage 13 metres high, built in 1633 without a single nail, over a slope of cherry and maple.
about ¥500 eachday's highlight
It opens at 6:00; at that hour the stage is quiet and the light low. Walk on to the pagoda across the valley for the view of the stage among the blossom. Drink from the Otowa waterfall's three streams below.
An hour and a half; by nine the paths are full.
Stone-stepped lanes of wooden shops and teahouses running down from Kiyomizu towards Gion.
free
Empty this early. Breakfast at a café on the way; the Starbucks in a tatami townhouse on Ninenzaka opens at 8.
A Zen temple founded in 1606 by the widow of the warlord Hideyoshi, with a raked gravel garden, a bamboo grove and a great weeping cherry.
about ¥600 each
Five minutes from Ninenzaka. Its weeping cherry stands by the main hall. An hour. Then lunch and a rest at the hotel.
Kyoto's hanami park, centred on a giant weeping cherry lit at night, behind the vermilion Yasaka Shrine.
freecrowds
Through Yasaka's lantern-hung hall at dusk into the park. Food stalls and picnics under the trees. Dinner in Gion after.
The Philosopher's Path under its cherries from Ginkaku-ji, Nanzen-ji's gate and aqueduct, the Keage incline, and a boat along the Okazaki canal.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The Silver Pavilion, a shogun's retreat of 1490 that was never silvered, with a sculpted cone of sand and a moss garden on the hill.
about ¥500 each
Bus or taxi, 20 minutes. Be there for the 8:30 opening and walk the hillside path above the pavilion. Forty-five minutes.
A two-kilometre stone path beside a canal, under hundreds of cherry trees, named for a philosopher who walked it daily.
freeday's highlight
From Ginkaku-ji south towards Nanzen-ji, 40 minutes slowly. In full bloom the branches meet over the water, and fallen petals cover the canal. Small temples and cafés lie off it to the east.
By eleven it is shoulder to shoulder.
One of Zen's great temples, with a massive wooden Sanmon gate you can climb and a red-brick aqueduct of 1890 crossing its grounds.
gate about ¥600
Climb the Sanmon for the view over the cherries; walk through the aqueduct's arches. Yudofu, simmered tofu, is the temple-quarter lunch.
An old railway that hauled boats up the hill, its tracks now a walk under cherries, and the canal below it where boats run through blossom.
canal boat about ¥1,500
Walk down the tracks, then take the Okazaki Sakura Corridor boat, 25 minutes along the canal, in season only. The Heian Shrine's garden, with weeping cherries over a pond, is five minutes away, about ¥600.
¥4,000–8,000 each
Kiyamachi's canal, parallel to Pontocho, has cherries lit at night too. Obanzai, Kyoto home cooking, or an izakaya.
Arashiyama's bamboo grove at 7:30, Tenryu-ji's garden at opening, the river by the Togetsukyo bridge, and Nijo Castle's cherries by night.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A path through tall bamboo on the western edge of Kyoto, the stems creaking in the wind.
free
JR Sagano line to Saga-Arashiyama, 15 minutes. At this hour it is quiet; by ten it is a queue. Ten minutes long; walk on to the Okochi Sanso villa's garden at the end if open.
A Zen temple of 1339 whose pond garden, borrowing the hills behind it, is one of the oldest in Japan, with weeping cherries in spring.
about ¥500 each
Its north gate opens onto the bamboo grove. An hour in the garden.
A long wooden-railed bridge over the Katsura river, with cherry-covered Arashiyama mountain behind it.
free
Hire a rowing boat, or walk up the south bank. Lunch in Arashiyama, then back to the hotel.
The shoguns' palace in Kyoto, built in 1603, with 'nightingale floors' that squeak to warn of intruders and gardens of several hundred cherry trees.
about ¥2,000 for the eveningday's highlight
In blossom season the gardens are lit in the evening with a separate ticket; the palace interior is a daytime visit. Check the dates on the castle's site.
Dinner near the hotel after.
Fushimi Inari's thousands of gates at 7:00, the Shinkansen to Hiroshima, the Peace Park and museum, and okonomiyaki for dinner.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The head shrine of Inari, god of rice and business, whose paths climb the mountain behind it through some 10,000 vermilion torii gates given by companies and families.
freeday's highlight
Two stops on the JR Nara line; open all night. Go through the double tunnel of gates and up as far as the Yotsutsuji crossroads, 45 minutes, for the view over Kyoto. Few people go higher.
Back by ten; bags from the hotel.
about ¥11,000 eachreserved seats
The Nozomi, an hour and 40 minutes. Tram or taxi from Hiroshima station to the hotel.
The park built where the atomic bomb fell on August, with the ruined Atomic Bomb Dome on the river, and the museum of what happened to the city and its people.
museum about ¥200
The museum takes two hours and is hard going; the personal belongings room is the heart of it. Then the cenotaph, framing the flame and the Dome, and the Dome itself across the river, its cherries along the banks.
Hiroshima's savoury pancake, layered with cabbage, noodles and pork on a griddle, and a building of three floors of okonomiyaki counters.
¥1,500–2,000 each
Sit at the griddle and eat from it with a small spatula.
The train and ferry to Miyajima, Itsukushima Shrine and its gate in the sea, the ropeway up Mount Misen, and the gate again at high tide.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥800 each
JR Sanyo line to Miyajimaguchi, 30 minutes, then the JR ferry, 10 minutes, which passes close to the torii. The island charges a ¥100 visitor tax, paid at the ticket gate.
A shrine of the 12th century built on piers over the tide, and its vermilion gate standing 16 metres high in the sea, which seems to float at high tide.
about ¥300 eachday's highlight
Look up the day's tide table: at low tide you can walk out to the gate's feet; at high tide it stands in the water. Deer wander the island; do not feed them.
An hour.
The island's sacred mountain, 535 metres, with a view over the islands of the Inland Sea and a temple hall where a fire has burned for 1,200 years.
ropeway about ¥2,000 returnsteep
Walk through Momijidani park to the ropeway, 15 minutes. From the top station it is 30 minutes more on foot to the summit. Two and a half hours in all.
Miyajima's street of food stalls and souvenir shops, with grilled oysters and momiji manju, maple-leaf cakes.
¥2,000–3,000 each
Anago-meshi, grilled conger eel on rice, is the island dish. Then back to the shore for the tide, and the ferry back by evening.
The Shinkansen to Himeji, an hour. The white castle among its cherries, the Koko-en garden, then half an hour to Osaka and Dotonbori at night.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥8,000 each
About an hour. Leave the bags in the coin lockers at Himeji station; the castle is straight up the avenue, 15 minutes' walk.
Japan's finest original castle, a white wooden keep of 1609 called the White Heron, never burned or bombed, with about a thousand cherry trees in its grounds.
about ¥2,500 eachday's highlight
Climb the six floors of the keep, steep wooden stairs in socks, for the view over the grounds. The Nishinomaru garden's long corridor is the quieter part. Two hours.
In blossom week the queue at the gate can be an hour by midday.
Nine walled gardens on the site of samurai houses beside the castle, with a teahouse and a lake of carp.
about ¥300 each
Lunch in its restaurant, which looks onto the garden. Then the train to Osaka: JR special rapid, an hour, or the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, 30 minutes.
Osaka's canal street of giant neon signs, the Glico running man and food stalls, where the city's motto is eat until you drop.
¥3,000–5,000 each
Takoyaki, octopus balls, and kushikatsu, fried skewers: no double-dipping in the shared sauce. Walk the canal to the Ebisu bridge.
Osaka Castle's park in the morning, then Nara: the Great Buddha at Todai-ji, the deer park and Kasuga's lanterns; Shinsekai at night.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Hideyoshi's castle of 1583, its keep rebuilt in concrete in 1931, inside great stone walls and moats ringed by cherries.
park free, keep about ¥600
The walls and moats are the best of it; the keep is a museum. The Nishinomaru Garden, about ¥200, has 300 cherries with the keep behind them. An hour and a half.
A temple of 752 whose Great Buddha Hall, among the largest wooden buildings in the world, holds a bronze Buddha 15 metres high.
about ¥800 eachday's highlight
Kintetsu from Namba to Nara, 40 minutes, then 20 minutes' walk through the park. Behind the Buddha, a pillar has a hole the size of its nostril; squeezing through is said to bring enlightenment.
A park of 1,200 tame deer, sacred messengers of the gods, and a forest shrine hung with 3,000 bronze and stone lanterns.
free; shrine inner area about ¥500
Deer crackers cost ¥200; the deer bow, then push. Walk the lantern-lined path to Kasuga Taisha, 20 minutes. Lunch in Naramachi's old streets, then back to Osaka.
A pre-war entertainment quarter round the Tsutenkaku tower, with kushikatsu counters and retro arcades.
¥3,000–4,000 each
A last night of Osaka street food. Pack tonight; the flight is at 14:00.
Breakfast at Kuromon market, then the Nankai rapi:t from Namba to Kansai for the 14:00 flight.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A covered market of 150 stalls, Osaka's kitchen: grilled scallops, tuna, wagyu skewers, fruit.
¥2,000–4,000 each
Ten minutes' walk from Namba. Eat at the stalls' counters.
about ¥1,500 each
The blue rapi:t from Nankai Namba, 40 minutes, reserved seats. At the airport by 11:45 for the 14:00 flight. Top up nothing on the IC card; spend the rest in the airport shops.
Long legs by Shinkansen, everything else with an IC card.
A Suica or PASMO card, or the same in your phone's wallet, pays for metro, local trains, buses and convenience stores everywhere on this trip. Tap in and out.
Book seats on the SmartEX app or at station machines; in blossom season reserved seats on popular trains sell out, so book when you know the day. Since the 2023 price rise, a 14-day Japan Rail Pass costs more than this route's tickets bought one by one; buy single tickets.
Big suitcases need a reserved oversize space on the Shinkansen. Easier: send them ahead with takkyubin from the hotel, a day's notice, about ¥2,500 a case.
Tokyo's cherries usually open in the last week of March and are full a week later; Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka follow by a few days; Lake Kawaguchi, higher up, a week or two after Tokyo. The Japan Meteorological Corporation and others publish forecasts from January. If the season runs early or late, swap the order of the Tokyo and Kyoto days.
Do not eat while walking in the street; stand by the stall. Queue in lines marked on the platform. Shoes off where you see a step up and slippers. No tipping. Keep voices low on trains, and phones on silent.
Cards are now widely taken, but small restaurants, shrines and markets may want cash. Keep ¥20,000; 7-Eleven ATMs take foreign cards.
For two, 14 days and 13 nights in blossom season (March–April): rooms, the ryokan, trains, tickets, food and a buffer. Flights are not included.
| Item | Economy | Comfort | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel in Tokyo, 4 nights | ¥100,000 | ¥160,000 | Blossom-season prices |
| Ryokan at Lake Kawaguchi, 1 night | ¥45,000 | ¥75,000 | With dinner and breakfast |
| Hotel in Kyoto, 4 nights | ¥120,000 | ¥200,000 | Peak week |
| Hotel in Hiroshima, 2 nights | ¥30,000 | ¥50,000 | |
| Hotel in Osaka, 2 nights | ¥40,000 | ¥70,000 | |
| Long-distance trains and the Fuji bus | ¥80,000 | ¥90,000 | Single tickets |
| IC card travel and taxis | ¥20,000 | ¥25,000 | |
| Temples, castles, gardens, teamLab, Shibuya Sky, ropeway | ¥30,000 | ¥30,000 | About ¥15,000 each |
| Lunches | ¥56,000 | ¥80,000 | 14 lunches for two |
| Dinners | ¥100,000 | ¥150,000 | 12 dinners for two besides the ryokan |
| Coffee, snacks, hanami picnics | ¥30,000 | ¥45,000 | |
| Buffer | ¥40,000 | ¥80,000 | Luggage delivery, souvenirs |
| Total | ¥691,000 | ¥1,055,000 |
Realistic figure: About ¥800,000–900,000 for two, without flights
Keep ¥20,000 in cash for small restaurants, shrines and markets.
All of them: the WayFriend guide library.
