Sakura Season 2024: Petal Perfect Picks
Wherever you're heading, let me pinque your interest
Hello Insiders!
In this month’s edition:
Sakura Sweet Spots
The Best Blooming Deals in March
Treat Yourself to a First Class Luggage Experience
Sakura Season 2024: 4 Sweet Spots
The perfect time to see the cherry blossoms varies, starting in mid-March down in Kyushu, running all the way to early May up in Hokkaido. That’s why I’ve picked 4 of the best sakura viewing spots running the length of the country, 1 for each of the 4 main islands. They’re all in the grounds of castles, some of which are holding special festivals. Check the forecast information and latest bloom information to avoid disappointment!
Kumamoto Castle
With about 800 cherry trees, this southern stronghold is one of your best bets for sakura satisfaction in Kyushu. Visit at the weekend or on a national holiday between March 9th and 24th to experience traditional music and culture in the Kumamoto Castle Spring Festival. Kumamoto is served by the Kyushu Shinkansen, just 40 minutes from Fukuoka city, and Kumamoto Airport is well-connected with all major cities.
Blooms: end of March
Matsuyama Castle
Over in the western reaches of Ehime, this centrally-located and original fortress towers over the city. Take the chairlift or ropeway up to the top to enjoy around 200 trees’ worth of sakura foregrounding spectacular vistas of Shikoku’s metropolis wannabe. Matsuyama can be reached in about 2 hours and 40 mins by limited express from Okayama, and you can also fly in cheaply from Tokyo with Jetstar. If you want to hop over for the day from Hiroshima, show your passport for a killer discount on the high speed ferry. Blooms: end of March
Hirosaki Castle
With around 2500 of the precious trees, this is considered the premier cherry blossom location in all of Tohoku. Not only does the castle have a cherry blossom festival from April 19th to May 5th, it also holds a night-time illumination event. You can easily get to Hirosaki on a local train in 40 minutes from Aomori, where connections south to Tokyo and north to Hakodate are plentiful.
Blooms: late April
Fort Goryokaku
This isn’t your average Japanese castle. Fort Goryokaku is a star shaped citadel, inspired by French design, and completed in 1866. With in excess of 1000 cherry trees, you’d be hard pressed to find a better sakura spot in all of Hokkaido. Take a trip up the viewing tower to get some incredible shots of the blossom blanketing the park. Goryokaku is in Hakodate, on the south-western end of Hokkaido. Unless you’re a train fanatic, you’ll want to fly in from Tokyo.
Blooms: end of April
This month’s best deals
Sakura Tours and Activities
If you’re short on time, or you just don’t want to do all the planning for an excursion, a guided tour is a great way to make the most of your trip. For Sakura Season, Klook’s given me a 15% off promo code for you to use with tons of cherry blossom tours and activities across the country. Just enter the code JAPANUNRAVELLED15 during the checkout process. Sorry rest of the world, this is only valid for US residents. The code expires on March 10th.
Bargain Train Pass Returns
This month also sees the return of the Seishun 18 Kippu, a perennial favourite with those travelling on a budget. Available to all humans, this is an all-you-can-ride ticket on JR's rail network, as long as you only take local and rapid trains.
Sold with 5 days’ worth of unlimited trainery, you can use this with a group of 5 people for a 1 day trip, or 2 people for 2 days, and then 1 person for 1 day (and other variations). It costs 12,050 yen from JR ticket offices, but smart travellers know to hunt down cheaper part-used 18 kippus at the discount ticket shops you can find around many stations. Just search on Google Maps for 金券ショップ (discount ticket shop).
The time-rich among you might be interested in travelling across the country with this ticket (I've done this a lot, and boy, Nagoya to Sapporo by local train was a heck of a lot of fun, much more than you'd think). However, this ticket also has a place for much shorter day trips.
Say you're staying in Kyoto and want to visit Himeji for the day. A ride on JR's fast rapid train gets you there in 93 minutes, but will set you back 4620 yen for a round trip. One of your five parts on the 18 Kippu comes to 2410 yen, making the trip about half price. Journeys from Tokyo to destinations like Nokogiri Mountain, Nikko, and Fukuroda Falls all become similarly cheaper when using this ticket. There's also the added advantage that you can hop off anywhere on your journey if you spot something interesting.
But here's the best part: if you can't use up all the 5 portions, ticket shops will usually buy it back from you.
Seishun 18 Kippu is on sale until March 31st and can be used from March 1st until April 10th.
Hassle-free luggage: the killer pro-tip
Whether you're heading back to the airport or shuttling around between cities, hauling luggage around can get old very fast. So if you want to experience the ultimate in travel convenience (arguably better than riding in the Green Car), hand over your hassle to a luggage forwarding service. Shifting your suitcase costs a few thousand yen a time, but it's worth that a thousand times over. Here's why.
Delivery companies in Japan are not what you might be used to in your home country. Whatever you send arrives in perfect condition, unlike what you commonly experience in say, the UK. Your luggage will usually get there the next day, unless a typhoon or other disaster intervenes, and if you're forwarding to another hotel, you'll often find cases waiting for you in your room.
Luggage forwarding is also incredibly flexible with schedules. At time of sending, you can specify a delivery date up to 5 days in the future. This means that you can send a large case on to one city, and still visit some intermediate stops along the way with only a small bag. I've done this before when travelling by train up to Hokkaido, where my case was waiting for me in the hotel reception.
This service is great for making airport days way less stressful. Same-day delivery is possible in the major cities from the airport. And if you can get organized to send your case back to the airport 2 days before your flight, you'll have the most joyful check-in experience ever. Luggage pick-up desks are often just a few steps from your check-in counter.
To give luggage forwarding a go on your next trip, visit the dedicated counters at the airport, or ask at your hotel front desk for takkyubin. If they don't offer it, just head over with your case to a nearby convenience store. The form has labels in English and the Yamato website can answer all your questions. And should you need more help, they even have brilliant phone support staff who speak excellent English.
Trip Essentials
Everything you need in one place - get ready and support my work at the same time!
Basics: eSIM / Sim Card / Pocket Wifi / VPN / Travel Insurance / Japanese Phrases
Transport: JR Pass / Regional Passes / Shinkansen Tickets
That’s all for this month! See ya!
Andrew
*There are some affiliate links in this email: I will earn a small commission if you buy something, and it costs you nothing. Cheers!
Andrew, We are hoping to see Cherry blossoms in the Nara and Ise area in a couple of weeks. Using NaviTime and Google maps for train travel between these cities and getting different results for the same station at the same time of day. Which of the 2 apps would you trust if they differ?
Thanks Andrew, there's some great tips there for a newby planning our first Japanese trip. 👍