The Lotti's Travel Blog

Our journey starts in Tokyo, then down to Kobe and Arima Onsen, before going to Kyoto. Using Kyoto as a base, we will travel to Osaka and Nara before taking the shinkansen back to Tokyo.

Many travelers say it’s tricky to catch the sakura bloom is Japan, so we’ve made sure the first half of our trip has several opportunities for sakura hanami (花見, ‘flower viewing’). We land in Tokyo when the full bloom period starts, and staying in Shiodome (汐留) ‘Italia-gai’ (Italian-town), a small neighborhood near central Tokyo. This is near the Hamarikyu Gardens (浜離宮恩賜庭園) which is famous for sakura as well as Shiba Park, popular for hanami.

From Tokyo we travel south to Kobe via the shinkansen (bullet train), which will take us across the Kanto and Kansai regions where we’ll hopefully spot pockets of sakura groves. Up the mountain behind Kobe, we’ll take a rope-way across the mountain tops passing by forests with sakura to Arima Onsen. Sakura trees line the Arima river that goes through the onsen (温泉, ‘hot spring’) town, which is famous for it’s Ginsen (銀泉, ‘golden spring’) and Kinsen (金泉, ‘silver spring’).

Our next stop will be Kyoto, which will serve as our base as we explore other areas of the Kansai region. We’ll be staying along the Kamo river, which runs through the heart of Kyoto and we’ll be close to many shrines and temples filled with sakura.

A scenic train will take us from Kyoto to Nara and Osaka. In Nara, we’ll chase sakura and feed deer. In Osaka, we’ll do what everyone else does – kuidaore (食い倒れ), ‘eating until we’re bankrupt’. Both cities have plenty of opportunities to catch sakura lining rivers or filling gardens.

The last week of our tirp will be back in Tokyo for DisneySea and all things otaku (お宅 / オタク) – subcluture of people who are interested in Japanese culture like anime, video games, or idols. Peak sakura season will be waning by this time, but with luck on our side we’ll get to see the soft petals fall of the sakura tree, filling the sky and river with shades of pink.