Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Japan has no single cherry-blossom week. The sample trees the weather agency watches open in Okinawa in mid-January and in Sapporo at the start of May, and bloom to full bloom takes about a week wherever you're. The dates below are the 1991–2020 averages and what the 2026 season actually did, which is the base to book on until the 2027 forecasts land in January.
- Season
- Mid Jan – early May
- Base dates
- 1991–2020 averages
- 2027 forecasts
- From January
- First city
- Naha, 16 Jan
1What is fixed, and what isn't
The Japan Meteorological Agency keeps a sample tree in each city and records two days. The first is bloom, when five or six flowers have opened. The second is full bloom, when eighty per cent of the crown has. Both are observations, not predictions. The averages below are the 1991–2020 normals for those same trees.
Nobody can tell you the 2027 dates in October 2026. The private forecasters publish their first cherry-blossom maps in January, and the weather agency's own observations begin when the Okinawan trees open in the new year. Until then the averages are the honest planning base, and the 2026 season is the most recent evidence of how far a year can move.
2026 ran early in eleven of the thirteen cities below, by up to thirteen days in Sapporo and eleven in Nagano. Fukuoka and Naha were two days late. A city can miss its average in either direction, which is why the week you book matters more than the day.
Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
One more thing is fixed. Bloom and full bloom sit about a week apart in every city on the table, so the day a city opens is the start of a window rather than the day to arrive.
2The thirteen cities, average against 2026
| City | Average bloom | Average full bloom | 2026 bloom | 2026 full bloom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naha 那覇 | 16 Jan | 4 Feb | 18 Jan | 3 Feb |
| Fukuoka 福岡 | 22 Mar | 31 Mar | 24 Mar | 3 Apr |
| Hiroshima 広島 | 25 Mar | 3 Apr | 19 Mar | 30 Mar |
| Takamatsu 高松 | 27 Mar | 4 Apr | 25 Mar | 1 Apr |
| Osaka 大阪 | 27 Mar | 4 Apr | 26 Mar | 3 Apr |
| Kyoto 京都 | 26 Mar | 4 Apr | 23 Mar | 30 Mar |
| Nagoya 名古屋 | 24 Mar | 2 Apr | 17 Mar | 30 Mar |
| Tokyo 東京 | 24 Mar | 31 Mar | 19 Mar | 28 Mar |
| Kanazawa 金沢 | 3 Apr | 8 Apr | 29 Mar | 3 Apr |
| Sendai 仙台 | 8 Apr | 13 Apr | 31 Mar | 4 Apr |
| Nagano 長野 | 11 Apr | 16 Apr | 31 Mar | 6 Apr |
| Aomori 青森 | 22 Apr | 26 Apr | 13 Apr | 16 Apr |
| Sapporo 札幌 | 1 May | 6 May | 18 Apr | 24 Apr |
The average column is what a booking calendar should be built on. Sapporo's thirteen-day jump is the largest in the table and the one to treat with most care: a Hokkaido trip timed off 2026 would have missed its own season by a fortnight.
3The season, month by month
| When | Where the bloom is |
|---|---|
| Mid January – February | Okinawa, on the island's own early variety; Naha averages 16 January for bloom and 4 February for full bloom |
| Third week of March | Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Takamatsu and Kyoto open; Tokyo and Nagoya follow within three days |
| Last week of March | Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya at full bloom. This is the week most trips are aimed at |
| First week of April | Kanazawa opens, Sendai and Nagano follow, and the double-flowered varieties take over in Tokyo and Kyoto |
| Mid to late April | Aomori, Hirosaki and the northern castle moats |
| First week of May | Sapporo opens on 1 May on average and peaks on 6 May, straight into Golden Week |
The country isn't pink all at once, and the two ends are more than three months apart. A single trip can catch one region at its peak, or two if you move north with the front.
Keep reading Japan autumn leaves 2026
4Tokyo: two parks, two different days
Shinjuku Gyoen is the one paid garden in central Tokyo and the one with rules worth reading before you go. Entry is ¥500 for an adult, ¥250 for over-65s and students, free for children of middle-school age and under, and an IC card works at the gate. The garden opens 09:00–18:00 from 15 March to 30 September, last entry 17:30.
It normally closes on Mondays, and from 25 March to 24 April it doesn't: the garden stays open every day through the cherry season. That exception is the reason a Monday in late March is a usable day here and not at most other gardens.
Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
About 900 trees of some seventy varieties grow inside, including some 300 someiyoshino. That mix is why the garden has a season rather than a week: early varieties from February, someiyoshino from late March, and the double-flowered yaezakura in mid-April. It also bans alcohol outright, along with cooking equipment, drones and any long occupation of a bench or a lawn.
For the busiest days the garden has started taking timed entries. In 2026 that meant 28 and 29 March and 5 April, 10:00–16:00, sold online only from 2 March, with the 09:00–10:00 and 16:00–17:30 slots left open to anyone. The notice for each season goes up in early March, so check the garden's own page in the week you book.
Shinjuku Gyoen 新宿御苑
- Address
- Naitocho 11, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0014 · Map
- Hours
- 09:00–18:00, last entry 17:30, from 15 March to 30 September
- Closed
- Mondays, except 25 March – 24 April when the garden opens daily
- Admission
- ¥500 adult, ¥250 over 65 and students, free for children
Chidorigafuchi, ten minutes west of the palace, is the free alternative and works after dark. The moat walkway is lit from 18:00, and in 2026 the lighting ran from 26 March to 6 April. The boat pier below it was open 09:00–19:30 in the same window, and part of the fleet can be reserved for a set time instead of queued for.
Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The boats aren't cheap: ¥12,000 for one boat for an hour, which includes a donation to the city's cherry-tree fund. A rowboat for two at that price is a decision, not a default. The walkway costs nothing and is the better half of the visit anyway.
5Kyoto, where the party is the point
Maruyama Park is free and open all day, and for two weeks a year it runs like a public festival. Its weeping cherry is the tree everyone photographs, and the food stalls under it trade into the evening. In 2026 the lights ran from 24 March to 8 April, and the city's guide puts the usual peak in the last days of March and the first days of April.
Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Two other Kyoto walks are worth building a morning around. The Philosopher's Path is a canal lane with no gate and no fee, and before 08:30 it's close to empty. The Okazaki canal, east of the city centre, usually holds its bloom a few days longer than the temples, which the city puts at late March to mid-April.
For the late season, Ninna-ji in the north-west is the one to keep: its omuro cherries open about a fortnight after the someiyoshino in the same city, and the temple charges admission at the gate. Kyoto's own guidance is to see the early trees in the last week of March and the late ones in the second week of April, which is two trips unless you live close.
Maruyama Park 円山公園
- Address
- Maruyamacho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto 605-0071 · Map
- Hours
- Open all day; the cherry lights ran 24 March – 8 April in 2026
- Closed
- No gate, no closing time, no admission fee
- Website
- ja.kyoto.travel
6The 2027 calendar problem: 20–22 March
The Cabinet Office has already published the 2027 holidays, and one of them lands in the wrong place for anyone planning Tokyo. Vernal Equinox Day falls on Sunday 21 March, so Monday 22 March becomes a substitute holiday: a three-day weekend ending two days before Tokyo's average bloom date and nine days before its average full bloom.
| 2027 date | What it's | What it does to the season |
|---|---|---|
| 20–22 March | Weekend plus the Vernal Equinox substitute holiday | Fukuoka and Hiroshima are at or near full bloom; Tokyo and Kyoto are still opening |
| 29 April | Showa Day | Aomori and Hirosaki are opening, and the double-flowered trees are done in the south |
| 3–5 May | Constitution Day, Greenery Day, Children's Day | Sapporo's average full bloom is 6 May, so Golden Week and Hokkaido's peak are the same five days |
Those are the dates Japanese travellers also take, and hotels in Kyoto and Tokyo price accordingly. If your dates are fixed to that March weekend, move the plan west to Fukuoka or Hiroshima, or accept the buds in Tokyo. If they aren't fixed, the Tuesday to Thursday of the following week is the same bloom with fewer people in it.
7Sapporo, and why the last week exists
Sapporo averages 1 May for first bloom and 6 May for full bloom, five weeks after Tokyo and the latest of the thirteen cities. In 2026 it opened on 18 April, thirteen days early, which is the biggest miss in the table and the reason a Hokkaido cherry trip is a gamble rather than a booking.
Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Hirosaki, in Aomori, is the classic northern stop: the moat is ringed with trees and the petals fall onto the water to make a pink surface for a few days each year. Aomori's average bloom is 22 April, four days before its full bloom, and Hirosaki sits a little later than the city's sample tree.
Both are exposed to the same risk. The northern season is short, the forecast is less reliable at that distance, and the trees can be a week late without warning. Treat the north as the part of the trip you can move.
8On the day
Cherry season is the one time of year when a Japanese park publishes rules it actually enforces. The differences between venues matter more than the blossom.
| Where | What it costs | The rule that catches people out |
|---|---|---|
| Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo | ¥500 adult | No alcohol, no cooking equipment, no reserving a bench or a lawn for hours |
| Chidorigafuchi, Tokyo | Free to walk; ¥12,000 an hour for a boat | The pier closes at 19:30 even though the lights stay on |
| Ueno Park, Tokyo | Free | Sheeting a spot is tolerated in the marked party areas only, and the park closes overnight |
| Maruyama Park, Kyoto | Free | Stalls and tables fill the park after dark; the quiet visit is the morning |
| Philosopher's Path, Kyoto | Free | It's a residential lane: no stalls, no music, no stopping in the middle of the path |
Two practical habits save the day. Rubbish goes home with you, because most of these places have no bins at all. And a picnic sheet is for food, not for holding ground from 09:00: at Shinjuku Gyoen the long occupation of a lawn is banned outright, and elsewhere it's the fastest way to get moved on.
9Getting there and what to book
Shinjuku Gyoen's main gate is five minutes from Shinjuku-gyoenmae station exit 1 on the Marunouchi line, or ten minutes from Shinjuku station's south exit. Chidorigafuchi is a short walk from Kudanshita, and Maruyama Park is ten minutes from Gion-Shijo. All three are inside a city where the trains run every few minutes, so the transport is the easy part of the day.
The booking is the hard part. Cherry season is the highest-demand fortnight of the Japanese year for hotels in Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka, and the 20–22 March weekend in 2027 puts a domestic holiday inside the window. Book the room before the forecast firms up, and keep one flexible day at either end for the trees to move.
| For the cherry trip | Why it belongs on this page | Check tickets |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo hotels | The two parks on this page are a morning apart, and late March is the tightest week of the year | Trip.com Klook KKday |
| Kyoto hotels | Maruyama Park and the Philosopher's Path are a morning and an evening of one Kyoto day | Trip.com Klook |
| JR Pass | Tokyo and Kyoto in one bloom means two shinkansen, and the north adds a third | Trip.com Klook |
| Japan eSIM | The bloom maps update hourly in season and every one of them needs data | Trip.com Airalo eSIMania |
10Questions and answers
The dates, the booking window, and what each park allows.
When is cherry blossom season in Japan in 2027?
Late March for Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, the first week of April for Kanazawa, Sendai and Nagano, and the first week of May for Sapporo. Those are the 1991–2020 averages from the Japan Meteorological Agency. The 2027 forecasts are published in January, and they move the dates by a week or more in either direction.
When should I book a cherry blossom trip?
Before the forecast is final, and off the averages on this page. Hotels in Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka sell out for the last week of March, and 2027 puts a three-day weekend on 20–22 March inside that window. Book the room early with a free cancellation and keep the last two days of the trip loose.
Is Tokyo earlier than Kyoto?
By two days on average: Tokyo opens on 24 March and Kyoto on 26 March, and both reach full bloom within a week. In 2026 Tokyo opened on 19 March and Kyoto on 23 March, so the order held even in an early year.
Can I still see cherry blossoms in May?
Yes, in Hokkaido. Sapporo averages 1 May for first bloom and 6 May for full bloom, and Aomori in the north of Honshu averages 22 April. Golden Week, 3–5 May, falls on Sapporo's peak, so the hotels there are the ones to book first.
Do I need to book Shinjuku Gyoen in cherry season?
Only on the busiest days, and only for the middle of the day. In 2026 the garden required timed online tickets on 28 and 29 March and 5 April between 10:00 and 16:00, while 09:00–10:00 and 16:00–17:30 stayed open to anyone. The notice for each season appears in early March.
Can I picnic under the trees?
In most public parks, yes. Maruyama Park in Kyoto and the marked areas of Ueno Park expect it. Shinjuku Gyoen bans alcohol, cooking equipment and the long occupation of a lawn, so a sheet with a bento and no beer is the version that works there.
Keep reading
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Sources
- Japan Meteorological Agency (気象庁) — the 2026 cherry-blossom observations and the 1991–2020 normals for the sample tree in each city: the first-bloom dates, the full-bloom dates, and the departure from normal for every station on this page (data.jma.go.jp/sakura/data/sakura_kaika.html, sakura_mankai.html)
- Ministry of the Environment, Shinjuku Gyoen (環境省新宿御苑) — opening hours 09:00–18:00 with last entry at 17:30 from 15 March to 30 September, the Monday closure and the 25 March – 24 April exception, admission of ¥500 with the over-65 and student rates, the ban on alcohol, cooking equipment and the long occupation of a lawn or bench, the 70 varieties and 900 trees with about 300 someiyoshino, the yaezakura peak in mid-April, and the gate access times from Shinjuku-gyoenmae and Shinjuku stations (env.go.jp/garden/shinjukugyoen)
- Ministry of the Environment — the press release on timed entry for the 2026 cherry season: 28 and 29 March and 5 April, 10:00–16:00, online booking only from 2 March, the 09:00–10:00 and 16:00–17:30 slots left open, and the exemptions for pass holders and families with children (env.go.jp/press/press_03164.html)
- GO TOKYO, Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau, with the Chiyoda City Tourist Association — the Chiyoda sakura festival: the 2026 lighting from 18:00 on 26 March – 6 April, the boat pier at 09:00–19:30, and the boat rate of ¥12,000 for one boat for one hour including the donation to the cherry-tree fund (gotokyo.org)
- Kyoto City official tourism (京都観光Navi) — the cherry-blossom bulletin: the 2026 Maruyama Park lighting from 24 March to 8 April, the usual peak of late March to early April by spot, and the Okazaki canal's later window of late March to mid-April (ja.kyoto.travel/flower/sakura)
- Cabinet Office (内閣府) — the 2027 national holidays: Vernal Equinox Day on 21 March, the substitute holiday on 22 March, Showa Day on 29 April, and 3–5 May (www8.cao.go.jp/chosei/shukujitsu)
- Every date here is current as of 22 October 2026. The 2027 forecasts are published in January, and the garden notices for the 2027 season appear in early March.