Six sakura travel luxuries to make cherry blossom season extra-special at Japan’s premier resorts

Hoshino Resorts celebrates sakura season.

If there’s a time to treat yourself to an upscale travel experience in Japan, it’s sakura season. Travel is all about making memories, after all, and springing for something extra while the cherry blossoms are in bloom is likely to result in a day, or night, you’ll never forget.

So with the flowers starting to bloom, it’s prime time for travel plans at Japan’s upscale Hoshino Resorts group, whose hotels are all situated in places of stunning beauty. What’s more, they’re offering ways to make things extra-memorable for guests, with the following lineup of special sakura events and displays.

1. Nighttime Sakura Rickshaw Ride
Location: Kai Tamatsukuri (Shimane Prefecture)
April 1-7

Hoshino Resorts’ Kai Tamatsukuri hot spring inn is located beside the Tamayugawa River, which is itself lined with 400 cherry blossom trees. During the first week of April, guests can add on a one-hour nighttime scenic-route rickshaw ride for 8,000 yen (US$59), which then brings you back to the hotel so you can soak in your private hot spring bath that all guestrooms include.

2. Pikapika Ohanami Night
Location: Omo7 Osaka (Osaka Prefecture)
March 1-April 30

One of the more centrally located Hoshino Resorts properties, Omo7 is currently hosting the Pikapika Ohanami Night event in its inner Miyagurin garden area. “Pikapika Ohanami” translates to “sparkling cherry blossom viewing,” and an array of roughly 13,000 LEDs creates cherry blossoms peals out of light to accompany open-air dining and entertainment.

3. Sea and Sakura Ohanami Stay
Location: Risonare Atami (Kanagawa Prefecture)
March 20-Aprl 5

Atami is a coastal town famed for its wide-open views of the sea. While those can be experienced year-round, terrace rooms are especially popular when nearby cherry blossoms are in bloom, and the hotel is adding sakura-shaped swing seats and boxed lunches to its amenities during the sakura season.

4. Blooming Farm Flowers Risonare
Location: Tomamu (Hokkaido Prefecture)
April 28-May 11

For those who really love flowers, Hoshino Resorts’ Tomamu hotel will be creating giant sakura out of other flowers in its on-site Farm Area, where visitors can also get an up-close look at the animals who live there. An extra-nice touch is that this event, unlike the others on the list, is one that day-visitors to the property can enjoy as well.

5. Tange Blooming Flower Festival
Location: Aomoriya (Aomori Prefecture)
April 5-May 31

The two things Aomori is most famous for are apples and the Nebuta Matsuri, a parade of colorful floats. Hoshino Resorts’ Aomoriya has year-round art displays of floats and apple blossoms in a festival-like atmosphere in its public-space Jawamegu Plaza, and for the spring it’ll be adding sakura imagery too.

6. Hanami Hot Spring
Location: All Hoshino Resorts Kai properties
March 26-April 8

21 Hoshino Resorts hot spring hotels across Japan make up its Kai sub-brand, and all of them will be offering some sort of sakura view during the Hanami Hot Spring promotion. After all, when faced with the question of whether to soak in a hot spring bath or gaze at the sakura, really the only sensible choice is “both.”

Source: Newscast (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Top image: Newscast
Insert images: Newscast (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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