10 awesome Tokyo cherry blossom festivals and experiences for this year’s sakura season

There’s never a shortage of cool stuff to do in Tokyo, and that goes double for when the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

Tokyo is Japan’s biggest city, and if you’re in the capital during sakura season, you’re spoiled for choice in terms of places to see the cherry blossoms. But with so many spots to choose from, yet only so many days that the short-lived flowers will be in bloom, you’ll have to make some tough decisions about which to hit up before time’s up.

So to help you narrow down your list of candidates, we’ve put together a list of 10 sakura festivals, nighttime light-up events, and other unforgettable cherry blossom experiences you can have in Tokyo this spring.

1. Chidorigafuchi Imperial Palace Sakura Festival
March 5-April 22
Website

Always a highlight of sakura season in the capital, we’ve talked about this one before, but we’d be remiss if we didnt include a reminder. This section of the moat that surrounds the Imperial Palace is lined with cherry trees that are illuminated after sundown, in a central location that makes it easily accessible for some hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) on the way home from work or following an afternoon of sightseeing. This year’s festivities include live musical performances and an extra dash of cuteness from Rilakkuma, but the highlight of the festival period will always be seeing the flowers from one of the rental rowboats.

2. Meguro River cruises
March 23-April 12
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The sidewalks along the Meguro River near Naka Meguro Station have become one of Tokyo’s most popular, and crowded, downtown sakura destinations in recent years. If you’d like to admire the trees instead of focusing your attention on weaving through the crowds, hour-long riverboat cruises that give you a central view of the 800-some cherry blossom trees will be taking place during the peak season, with tickets available online here.

3. Ueno Park Sakura Festa
Website
March 14-April 5

The most famous cherry blossom spot in Tokyo has weeks’ worth of food and live musical performances lined up, with everything from piano and jazz saxophone to idol groups and DJs. A portion of food sale proceeds will also be donated to Tohoku revitalization projects, as 2026 marks 15 years since the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of northeastern Japan.

4. Sumida River cruises
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Compared to the inner-city simplicity of the Naka Meguro cruises, Sumida’s cruises offer a more old-school, but also opulent, experience. Traditional yakatabune pleasure boats make their way up and down the waterway at the eastern edge of downtown, serving multi-course meals while letting you take in the sights of not only the cherry blossoms in bloom, but also landmark architecture such as the Tokyo Skytree.

5. Gotenyama Sakura Festival
March 27-April 5
Website

The Gotenyama garden has been a popular hanami venue since the Edo period, and hundreds of years later, it still hosts a cherry blossom festival. This year, for extra retro atmosphere, a thousand lanterns will be on display, and there will also be special workshops for making traditional Japanese handicrafts and live-demonstrations of ukiyo-e painting..

6. Sakura Fes Nihonbashi
March 18-April 5
Website

Nihonbashi is very much a high-rent district of Tokyo, and for the Sakura Fes the neighborhood’s fancy restaurants and luxury hotel eateries set up food stalls where you can get a taste of the high life without having to make a reservation. Between March 18 and 21, and again from April 3 to 5, the festivities overlap with the Nihonbashi Parfait Fes, so if you love both sakura and sweets, you’ll want to time your visit accordingly.

7. Roppongi Hills Spring Festival
April 3-5
Website

For most of the year, Roppongi Hills is a high-end shopping center that also draws visitors to its movie theater and art galleries. Many of the surrounding hillside streets and the center’s Mori Garden are surrounded by cherry blossom trees, though, and gourmet food stalls, music, and even kabuki performances are all part of the Roppongi Hills Spring Festival.

8. Ark Hills Sakura Festival
March 27-29
Website

The boughs of the sakura tress on either side of a kilometer (3,280-foot) long street in this posh neighborhood form a breathtaking tunnel of otherworldly beauty. You will still feel the earthy desire to eat delicious food, though, and so food stalls from local restaurants will be waiting in the nearby Karayan Plaza during the festival, as will musical performers.

9. Hotel New Otani
February 27-April 26
Website

This luxury hotel’s garden, which is open to guests and non-guests alike, boasts 19 different varieties of cherry blossom trees, with strategically placed lighting to help their colors really pop against the night sky, not that the garden is any slouch in the daylight. And if you are splurging for a room, guests can also upgrade their stay to include a rickshaw tour of sakura-lined streets in the surrounding neighborhood.

10. Rokugien Nighttime Light-up
March 18-24
Website

One of Tokyo’s most famous gardens, Rokugien usually closes at sundown. For a few special days during sakura season, though, there’s separate-ticket after-dark admission, when the grounds, and especially the weeping cherry blossom tree that’s a symbol of Rokugien itself, take on a whole new kind of beauty.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking not for downtown sakura events, but something a bit more under-the-radar this sakura season, we can help you with that too.

Source: PR Times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), @Press
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), @Press
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