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SPRING IN JAPAN
You’ve seen the skyline. Now see where it leads
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Spring in Japan isn’t just about sakura season, though it’s hard to resist the sight of petals drifting down a quiet canal. The real secret is to go earlier, when the plum blossoms bloom in soft whites and deep pinks, their scent carrying on still-cold air, and the crowds haven’t yet arrived. By April, the countryside exhales after winter: mountain roads reopen, temple gardens wake, and outdoor baths trade snow for petals. Days are mild, evenings cool, and every menu shifts to celebrate what’s fleeting; bamboo shoots, cherry leaf sweets, new tea.
And everywhere, the same joyful obsession takes hold: limited-edition everything. Sakura lattes, pink KitKats, blossom-scented bath salts — Japan turns its love of the ephemeral into an art form
It’s a great time to wander, to picnic, to see Japan at its gentlest, before the humidity of summer settles in. Be warned about the blossom, if it rains, all those petals are on the floor. It's the transience of it that makes it so special.
Moss Phlox your way past the sakura crowds
Float parades, silk lanterns, and wooden marionettes celebrate renewal in this beautiful mountain town
See Mount Fuji rise over the tea fields of Shizuoka
New shoots glint in the spring sun, green, gold, and Fuji-blue
Sleep in a temple at Mount Mitake
Wake to mist, moss, and the faint scent of mountain plum; spring begins so quietly
Bathe under the cherry trees at Hanamaki Onsen
Petals fall into open-air baths and the scent of spring hangs in the steam
Cruise Matsushima Bay beneath blooming pines
One of Japan’s Three Great Views — best seen by boat when the islands wear their soft spring colours
Cycle through rice fields and tulip farms in Toyama
Snow-capped Alps behind, tulips ahead. A painter’s palette of early spring colour unfolds beneath your wheels
Walk beneath falling petals in Hirosaki Castle Park
northern Japan’s answer to Kyoto, where spring arrives later and lasts longer
Watch firefly squid rise in Toyama Bay at dawn
thousands of glowing squid shimmer beneath the waves, then appear on the breakfast table flash-boiled with mustard miso
Toast the Spring Sake Season
Breweries open their doors for tastings of nama-zake; unpasteurised, vibrant, and alive with the taste of new beginnings
Taste wild herb tempura in the mountain villages of Nagano
after a soak in a mountain onsen dine on sansai foraged from thawing slopes. Crisp, earthy, and fleeting as the season itself
Go whale watching in the Kerama Islands
Humpbacks breach through calm spring seas calm seas, clear light, and far fewer crowds than in summer
Follow the plum blossom in Wakayama’s Kōya foothills
Before sakura steals the show, locals walk the ume groves around Minabe and Yuasa — pink, fragrant, and crowd-free, Japan’s early spring secret
If you’re over the cherry blossoms, I can show you where spring lingers. Fleeting petals, lasting memories.
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