Where to See Japan’s Best Cherry Blossom 2024! 🇯🇵 KYOTO SPECIAL 🇯🇵

In today’s video we are giving you our top 5 destinations for where to see cherry blossom in Kyoto, Japan this Sakura Season. We’re going to give you lots of tips we learned along the way during our month long stay in Kyoto last cherry blossom season!

Places we mentioned in the video:
Hirano Shrine, Maruyama & Shirakawa Lane: https://youtu.be/S448WAgggrI?si=YnRLM4yv5tcNkfFI
Gion Tanto: https://youtu.be/TBVfjyYFALk?si=-WfqcODpg5RJsYrS
Keage Incline & Philosophers Path: https://youtu.be/MWtFvBJ31ts?si=ajy8HZ4ullxy0wB8
Hirano Shrine Take 2: https://youtu.be/3s7d4v3bXM8?si=vcpS3UNKbLIsm7IU
Philosophers Path & Shrines: https://youtu.be/6Wrh3PpkgkY?si=sr9_NpVw8_zJo4vz
Geisha Show: https://youtu.be/SUXyY2Asw5Q?si=v6zrwKWu1iUlg-X8
Nijo Castle Illumination: https://youtu.be/_FO4Fv3yqB8?si=3p5BWBvpjC54UpCR
Romantic Train Ride (from Hell): https://youtu.be/ytw_qAIqERI?si=bG9FtcUoRO1K3d_L

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#kyoto #cherryblossom #japan #travel #travelvlog

If you are planning to see the cherry blossom in Kyoto this sakur season then this video is for you we’re going to give you all tips on the best places to see the cherry blossom what times to go how to avoid the crowds we stayed there

Last year for a month and it’s safe to say we got around didn’t we Jess we got around that cherry bosson yes we did we spend mid March to Mid April in 2023 in Kyoto and it was the most beautiful thing we’d ever seen the cherry blossom

So we just wanted to share all the tips and tricks that we learned along the way and share them with you take it away let’s go if you haven’t met us before I’m Jess I’m Jay and we’re a couple from darbishire in the UK we love travel we

Spent last year traveling around the world and Japan is one of our favorite countries we’re going to go in with our top five cherry blossom locations these are just our favorite places that we saw last year so number five is marama park marama park is a really huge public park

In the center of Kyoto next to yasaka Shrine in Kyoto it’s a very beautiful peaceful place to visit anyway it’s got loads of Meandering paths around the ponds there’s KO carp it’s very beautiful but at cherry blossom season it is extra stunning that’s when it comes into it own cherry blossom season

You’re going to see some amazing sites including a 100y old weeping cherry blossom yes I said weeping you’ve got to see it with your own eyes to believe it it’s literally the perfect photo op in that whole park yeah it’s very stunning it’s it’s the centerpiece to the park

It’s absolutely beautiful and it’s so huge they even illuminate at night so it’s beautiful all the day long Mama Park is a very popular place for hanime which is where locals and tourists alike go and have little picnics and parties in the park just to sit under the Cherry

B and trees and relax and take it all in and so it’s a very busy area especially in the evening so a tip for going to mariama park would be get there early we got there it was like I think it was about half it wasn’t too early it was

About half 8 in the morning we caught the bus from our hotel which wasn’t far and the place was empty there was literally like other and 20 other people in the whole park so we had all the Cherry bossom to our ourselveses and there were even lots of cats walking I

Was just going to say it was emty except for several cats yes resident cats that were just sat underneath the petals just chilling it was very cute just chilling so that was a really peaceful time to go we had a place to ourselves practically there were lots of people taking photos

But it wasn’t busy but we did return in the evening yeah around the park and the shrine they have a lot of food stores and it got really really busy we basically shuffled our way uh in L around all the food stores you were walking like that yeah it was very very

Busy and rightly so a lot of these places are very popular because they’re so beautiful so yeah if you want to avoid the crowds we recommend going early go before the food stores open I believe the food store’s open mid morning so if you go early morning

You’ll still be there when the food stores open so you’re getting the Best of Both Worlds number four is shirakawa Lane so shirakawa Lane is a very popular Street in Kyoto it is widely renowned as the most beautiful Street in Kyoto possibly the world I’ll vouch for that

It’s very popular because it is lined with traditional Japanese Merchant houses it’s got a little river running down it and of course it’s full of cherry blossom trees and they overhang over the river and it’s just so beautiful it’s such a beautiful Street and a lot of gishes are entertaining

Around there in the evening if you glance through the windows you can sometimes see gishes entertaining their guests it’s a very magical place to visit any time of the year but at cherry blossom season it is extra beautiful we actually saw AA um at Shir Calene and

She came we heard her first didn’t we like with the Sho wooden shoes on the floor and everybody was like what’s that nice what’s that nice chances are you will see a g you going from appointment to appointment very lucky to see if you see a gisha definitely this number four

Is kind of like a three in one because a road off of Shira Lan is called Yamato Bashi bridge and this is just the road off of Shira Lan and it is lined with cherry bosson trees on both sides it is really really stunning it’s just a narrow little street it’s kind of

Nondescript I don’t think there’s anything else of note on it really but there were a lot of people having professional photos done in this area and because they’re just on both sides it just kind of it’s just magical to walk through it’s as good as it gets for

A photo opportunity B yeah and I just thought I’d mention it because it’s so close to Shir carain as well also if you you know when you’re when you’re traveling you want to have a little meal Shir Lan right at the top there’s a restaurant called gon Tanto now the

Unique thing about this restaurant it’s situated in perhaps the most photographed spot on Shira Lane right on the corner where the river meets the path so if you managed to get a spot in this restaurant we went didn’t we and we we went twice we went twice in two days

That good twice in two days and we were queuing each time for over an hour yes there was a queue that’s the downside the silver lining for this queue though you’re looking at all the cherry blossom so you’ve got G just coming past it’s it’s crazy getting the queue it’s not

Like a queue it’s just you know get your camera out so once you’re in they serve uh traditional Japanese dish okonak they serve vegan options me options you name it they’ve got it you’ve got a tan Grill in front of you it’s absolutely delicious and we were really lucky when

We went in like a window seat the only window seat in the restaurant yeah you could ask for it a cherry bossom season look we look to our right and you’ve got basically all of the cherry blossom lining and hundreds of people taking photos yeah you just sat in the most

Perfect place to overlook the river to overlook the bridge that goes over the river and there all the Cherry bossom it was such a magical moment hence why we went back again despite the our queue it was um it’s definitely a good place and

Has a vegan menu so it takes a lot of boxes for us so we would definitely recommend to try and avoid the queue to go at opening times yeah when we went I think it opened around 600 in the evening yes there was always a queue there when we got there however yeah

Just try and get there a little bit before 6 just to try and get ahead of the queue and maybe request that table our number three spot for viewing the CH Blossom is kiag incline kiag incline is a dishu used cargo Railway track and in recent years it’s become a very popular

Spot for cherry blossom viewing with tourists and locals alike the cherry blossoms line the railway track so you can just walk down take it all in it’s just incredible how many cherry blossom trees there are along this Railway Road it is so so beautiful and you can even

See the mountains behind if you walk all the way to the top and turn around you can look into Kyoto with the mountains behind floating on Cherry Blossom it is very very beautiful it is absolutely breathtaking just looking at it Jess showed me a picture before we actually

Went of it and I was just like got to go here surely this place doesn’t exist it’s that beautiful can’t exist but it does exist it was the most In Bloom cherry blossom when we went I think I think we time it just right for this one

Yeah major tip for kiag Incline though you got to beat the crowds if you don’t want to be there with at least aund other people people you’ve got to go before 6 6:00 a.m. that would be my advice we got there at 6 I think it was

Like 6:27 and there was at least 100 people even more along the track so we were like ah we got here early and there’s still hundreds of people here yeah you can see why it’s so popular and why people get there so early we got there as early as we possibly could with

The transport but we were staying quite far away so it just depends how close you are if you could get there any earlier to just avoid that first surge of crowd it was still a wonderful visit regardless so our number two spot goes to her ran out Shrine this is a

Beautiful little Shrine and we were lucky enough to be staying just 10 minutes away from it coincidentally I’m so glad we were because this meant it was one of our first stops of the day we got there really really early and it was absolutely stunning upon researching it

We found out that this particular Shrine has been hosting a cherry bossom Festival since the year 985 wow so it’s the longest running festival in Kyoto today there are said to be 500 different trees and they are 60 different species of cherry blossom so that’s just know that yeah so if you

Want to see sakur go to hanano Shrine CU you’re going to see the Cherry botom of your choice yeah you can see the wall we didn’t know it existed and just having a walk around the neighborhood we saw saw it and we went there like three times

Yeah we kept going back cuz it was just so at all at all different stages we went when Cherry Boston was in full bloom and then literally 7 days later we we’ll put the comparisons on we went and the Cherry Boston was fading fading already so we managed to go at at the

Perfect time didn’t we yeah we’ll just put some images on I think that just shows you how short the cherry blossom season is and that is why people get so excited to see them in full blue um however so the first time we went we went very very early 6:00 in the morning

Sunrise beautiful absolutely stunning it was quiet we got to see the shrine the Tory gate against the cherry blossom in full bloom one of the best things I’ve ever seen with my own eyeballs um and at that time we didn’t even realize that there was a whole extra section that is

Closed off and that didn’t open till later in the day so seven days later when we returned we were like there’s this whole extra section with full of cherry bossom trees I think we did have to pay to get into that bit it wasn’t expensive wasn’t much just um a few

Hundred Yen yeah and inside of that section they’ve got benches to sit on under the trees you can get a drink you can get snacks even though it was a little bit later I think because of of the range of Cher Blossom that they have in there the different species so they

All Bloom at different times it was just magical genuinely magical and I even say saved I think we both did a p we saved a p was it the one that was it the one that went in my beer when I had a SI

Beer I had a sip of beer and I got a cherry Bloss it’s that beautiful and Serene the cherry blossoms falling around you so I didn’t see it a petal had fell in my beer and that’s what I drank so it could be that could be that

Pet yeah how romantic how romantic but it is a really lovely place so we put that at number two yeah it’s definitely it’s a little bit off the Beaten Track and it is mostly locals there a lot of tourists I think it is just a little bit

Far out of a lot of the major shrines our number one spot our absolute favorite cherry blossom viewing spot is the philosopher philosopher path wo number one baby yeah yeah the number one spot goes to the philosophers path this was a bit of a dark hor I did not

Expect to love this as much as I did when we got there the most stunning place I’ve ever seen so philosopher’s path is a about a half an hour walk 2 km walk down by a canal a Japanese philosopher used to walk along this path and meditate and it was his route to

Kyoto University that is where it got its name it’s just a really pleasant walk again any time of the year it’s a little Stone path down a beautiful canal and the cherry blossom it like arches all the way over it there are so many trees it’s perfectly lined you can just

Have a little wander along really soak it in and I think because it’s a longer distance it definitely didn’t feel as busy there were definitely little pockets of area where there wouldn’t be as many people around time to go we went straight after we went to kiag Incline

So we got there around 7 a.m. around 7 7:30 and it was it was perfect they were the odd person walking up and down it obviously it will get busier as the day goes on so again this is another place go very early and you’ll get the most

Out of it yeah and also so we walked all the way along it and we have actually Google Maps pinpointed yes the perfect spot where we got some really beautiful photographs where the cherry blossoms were extra thick there were loads really concentrated in one area and again it

Was so quiet there was no one there it was so stunning uh the lighting it was it was all genuinely so magical and I mean all of these locations kind of feel like a film it feels so beautiful so yeah I think that was our that was our favorite location definitely number one

We read it here number one philosopher’s path go get your walking boots on get get your camera ready and Away you go another good thing about the Philosopher’s path is that you compare it with other shrines as well there are quite a few shrines in that area it

Starts at the sil Pavilion and there’s lots of other stop offs you can do to tie it in to other visits if your time on Kyoto is shorter and you want to try and do as much as you can I think it’s a really good way to tie that in to other

Places you want to visit so in our video uh I think we’ve got two videos that include the Philosopher’s path and we’ll link them below so that you can plan your day and see what other places we visited whilst we were there so so you

Can make the most out of your time I think it can be very overwhelming in ch bwom season because it is such a short amount of time and you want to see all the best places at least I know I did I had a big long list that I wanted to

Check off so we just wanted to share the ones that we thought were definitely worth visiting and that we had the best experience at and hopefully you can tie it in to your trip cuz we we were very overwhelmed we were going to shrines for cherry blossom and they weren’t loom in

For another 3 weeks so we were just basically looking at trees with trees with no leaves on basically so we did make our sharing mistakes but when we find when we got it right was amazing so an honorable mention I just wanted to mention arashi armor which is a

Beautiful area of Kyoto the famous Bamboo Grove there there’s also a wonderful garden the garden is called aochi sanso in arashiyama there is the famous Sagano romantic train this is a 25 minute route and it goes along through the beautiful scenery and you can also see some cherry blossoms along

This route we’ve got a whole video on this we give our honest review but that the video may be the video may be called train ride from hell just just watch it and you you get what we meant okay yeah it’s a mixed thoughts on that one also just another

Quick note just check to see if there’s a gisha show on while you are in Kyoto there tend tends to be one around sakur season uh we went to the Kia adori theater and dance by gishes and it was wonderful it was one of the best things

That we saw whilst we were in Japan and it ties into cherry blossom season so I’ll leave a link below to help you find see if there’s one on while you are there on your trip five tips of how to make the most of the time you have for

Cherry blossom viewing so tip number one is check the forecast so in Japan they have a cherry blossom blooming forecast if you just Google it it should come up it tells you how In Bloom the cherry blossom is how many days left of the bloom at what stage the Bloom’s coming I

Can keep saying Bloom but you get the picture it’s very in depth and very helpful if you’re trying to plan the trip and what days you want to be wear while you’re in Japan my favorite tip uh and the one that I feel you’re going to get the most out

Of get there early as early as you can get the first train cuz the earlier you get there the crowds they’re not going to be there or in kiaga incline’s case there’ll only be about 100 people there yeah and I know it’s hard to get up

Early on your holiday well it is for me personally anyway but honestly the payoff is so worth it you get to see these places practically empty you can really beat the crowds if you get there early and pack in as many shrines as you can in the early part of the day tip

Number three is to also visit some locations in the evening certain shrines and locations have illuminations we went to a few of them we’ve got a video on nijo Castle illuminations and they’re just another beautiful way to experience the cherry blossom a lot of them have projection mapping and all this

Beautiful artwork and they light up all the cherry blossom so you can enjoy them in the evening as well also 7-Eleven Lawson family Mar they’re your best friends when you’ll making these excursions because you’re never far away from one and obviously if you’re doing a day of cherry Blossom hunting you’re

Going to need to fuel up aren’t you so they get they’ve got your snacks your oniri your drinks get fueled up fill your Rook sack up where you go obviously it’s a very busy time in Kyoto so a lot of the restaurants that can be full sometimes you have to book ahead if

There’s places that you’ve definitely gotten in your mind where you want to eat try and book if you can but otherwise yeah definitely good fallback on 7-Eleven Starbucks saved Our Lives more than once on this trip you know they’re always there you can always get a snack or something to keep you going

Throughout the day I know we’re nameing the franchises but you know sometimes they’re there when you need them another tip is transportation just before your day just plan what Transportation you’re going to use in Kyoto it is mostly buses that go to a lot of locations there is

An underground train system that is also very good but the buses are what we mostly use Kyoto is very sprawling I think that’s something I didn’t really realize until uh we went so you can be traveling up to an hour between certain big tourist destinations so try and just

Plan ahead that you don’t have to do a big travel do a few locations that you want to do that closer together so that you’re not spending most of your day on the bus um that’s just another tip that we definitely learned the hard way so I think that’s everything wow I think

That’s everything that was a quick one that was a quick one so we hope this has helped you plan your trip into Kyoto in some way if you’ve got any questions at all feel free to leave them below and we will answer them for you please like And

Subscribe if you enjoyed this it really helps other people find us happy cherry blossom hunting we’ll see you on the next one bye see You