Complete Guide to CHERRY BLOSSOMS in JAPAN

everything you need to know about how to see the cherry blossoms in Japan I'm Chris this is yellow Productions and we just started planning our trip to Japan to see the cherry blossoms in 2023 we've done it year over year and so in this video we're going to share with you everything we've learned about seeing the cherry blossoms that we frankly wish we knew when we first started going to visit Japan and see the blossoms so I'm gonna go through some frequently asked questions I get about seeing them and actually the another reason that I started up this stream this idea for this video is I've had a lot of people ask me recently about how do they see the blossoms where do they see them where are the best places to go when's the best time to go how long do they last and so those are all the things I'm going to be covering in this video in addition to what are some of the other things to do in Japan around the cherry blossoms that are popular in this time so first let's go ahead and start with when is the best time to see the cherry blossoms and it depends on the year because the cherry blossoms bloom based on the weather but for 2023 this is the official forecast just released by the Japan meteorological Service Corporation I'm going to make this big so you can see it they are expecting that the cherry blossoms will bloom in the various cities that you see on this screen at the various times so in Tokyo they're going to start blooming March 25th and then up in Sapporo on April 30th and then kind of along the way I'm gonna make my head go away so you can see there the two different numbers is like when it starts to Blue 80 Bloom Peak Bloom we're gonna get into all those different things but if you're planning a cherry blossom trip end of March to early may this year is the time you want to go and if you're planning it for other years well on average it goes from mid-march to mid May and by the way if you want to find the this picture in more detail and they update it every few weeks I've got a link in the description that you can click to find the latest current forecast whatever ear that you're going but they actually go down into way more detail than just that picture where they break it down into detail like particular cities the forecasted flowering date the full bloom date that we'll talk about what the average per year is and then you can even see what the flowering meter looks like right now how close the cherry blossoms are to actually blossoming so lots of detail and the links in the description are the English language sites although I've also put a good Japanese language site in there make sure you're going to use Google Translate if English is your language for that or whatever your preferred language is now if you are planning to visit Japan for the cherry blossoms know that this is the most popular time of year to visit Japan in the spring which means flights are expensive hotels are going to be expand offensive the earlier you book probably the cheaper you'll get them which may be a good or bad thing to book early or not we'll talk through more of that when I talk about planning your trip to Japan if you're specifically going just to see the blossoms now another question I get very frequently is I get the question of um how long do the cherry blossoms last once they've bloomed how long do you have to see them and first we need to talk about the different stages of cherry blossoms and so there's roughly six stages to cherry blossoms from these little buds coming on the trees to seeing the florets to actually the puffy blossoms right up here in stage five and then stage six is full bloom the best time to go is full bloom and those little stages on a on a bonsai tree look a little bit like this and let me get rid of my head so you can see it this is a bonsai cherry blossom tree and you can see in the upper left there there's nothing on it and in the lower right those flowers are in full bloom full bloom meaning that the flowers are at their biggest level and the you can see most of the Pebbles now Peak Bloom Peak Bloom where the petals are open the most that lasts for about one week so from the time it opens up like that to the time that the pedals fall off one week assuming that there isn't rain or that there isn't wind because significant rain and significant wind can definitely take those pedals off of the trees although if you go and it's windy then the trees kind of feel like they're snowing cherry blossoms which is pretty cool too now when you see something that says 80 Bloom that doesn't mean that 80 of the flowers are at full bloom that means that the flowers look more like over here where they're just kind of 80 open so there's a big difference between 80 and Peak Bloom now where should you go to see the cherry blossoms well if you're going to Japan to see the cherry blossoms you you really need to be flexible because the weather can make a big difference and elevation can make a big difference and so you'll want to be pretty mobile if you really want to see the best place to see the cherry blossoms they're really not in the centers of big cities because the centers of big cities in Japan have a lot of skyscrapers and not a lot of trees the places you're gonna find the best cherry blossoms in general first and then I'll give you some specifics later in general are along rivers along canals uh in castles in parks and in shrines one if like if you've done no research and you're in Japan in the spring you could wander into one of the many tourist information centers that you find in train stations and say Hey where's a good place today or tomorrow to see cherry blossoms and they'll give you some good advice based upon what is blooming right now if you're in the really popular tourist spots in Japan Tokyo Kyoto you're gonna find the cherry blossom sites in the center of those cities to be really busy and really crowded and so if you want to find the attractions that you get away from the crowds then you're going to want to get out from the cities frankly and you'll probably be going places that most tourists don't go if you want to see the best uh cherry blossom spots be prepared to take a bus uh or be prepared to drive your rental car and uh some of my favorite spots I'll show you some videos of later on now uh if you're planning a trip to see the cherry blossom specifically let's talk about this and I figure you fit in one of two categories the first category is you already have a trip planned to Japan and you already got some specific dates in mind because maybe it's your kids spring break who knows and you want to see the the cherry blossoms while you're there the other category is you've yet to plan your trip to Japan you're going to Japan specifically to see the cherry blossoms or as a main highlight of the trip and in that case you're uh like it's a different place because you're not in one spot you're like I want to go where they are the best and so I'm going to talk through these specific categories now um if you are planning just to see the cherry blossoms then depending upon how flexible you are you might not actually want to lock in your flights until later in March when the cherry blossom forecasts are much more defined and you can tell how the weather's been progressing and you know much more for certain when they're gonna Bloom because the worst thing is you get there and you're too early or too late and then you don't see any flowers at all now if you want to follow the blossoms you can basically plan a trip where that first slide that I showed you that shows uh this picture right here that shows the blossoms roughly Bloom earliest in the South and latest in the north you can book a set of hotels that follow the blossoms along from south to North the entire season is about six weeks you don't have to spend six weeks in Japan but if you really wanted to enjoy it in all of the Glory about six weeks going from south to North although elevation makes a difference too the lower the elevation the sooner they bloom because generally the lower the elevation the warmer it is quicker now you may not want to book a bunch of hotels move around a bunch of places so my other recommendation is to book a hotel in a good base someplace like Tokyo Station Shin Yokohama some place that is connected to the bullet train constant lines that you can go very far very very quickly so that you can see them as they bloom in different regions easily on Transit or the third option is to just wait to book your hotels like lock in your flights but then don't book your hotels until you know a few days out maybe you book the first one in Tokyo or Osaka and then you're like I'll just I'll just book the rest when I get there you'll be able to go to the best places though you will be paying a premium because you'll be booking them close in now another place that you might want to plan your trip around are cherry blossom festivals around the blooming of the flowers many cities towns shrines temples have cherry blossom festivals they call them Sakura Matsuri Sakura it's the Japanese word for Cherry Blossom maturi Japanese word for festival so if you search for Sakura Matsuri in Japan in Google you'd find dates that these municipalities are having these festivals and those would be pretty good times to visit those areas because they generally plan those festivals along the average time that the cherry blossoms bloom um we're going to talk a little bit more about the festivals when I get to things to do around cherry blossoms but you should also know that cherries that you eat they don't come from cherry blossom trees these ornamental cherry trees actually don't have edible fruit however comma uh there are things edible from the cherry blossom trees and in particular the petals or the leaves are actually edible and so in Japan during cherry blossom season you will find every business every restaurant gets into cherry blossom Spirit offering limited edition limited time food merchandise even McDonald's gets in to the Cherry Blossom Spirit last year they offered a limited edition Sakura Mochi pie that's right not an apple pie but a cherry blossom flavored apple pie it also had uh red bean paste in there and mochi which is a rice cake with pickled Sakura leaves and of course they made it pink Starbucks gets into the Act 2 with cherry blossom themed drinks in this case they just use strawberries and they made them pink and they put a decorative cherry blossom tree on it no cherry blossom leaves were harmed or used in the making of these drinks and I said of course merchandise Starbucks in addition to lots of other businesses release these whole sets of cherry blossom decorated merch for the season that you can pick up but diving in deeper in other things that you can do well of course you can take photos it's a huge Japanese Pastime to take photos of the cherry blossoms now you can take photos of them you can take photos of you with them but something that I think is really neat to do is to rent a kimono and then take pictures in full kimono with the cherry blossoms and there are tons of businesses that'll rent you a kimono just for the day to wear around Japan the popular another popular activity is Hanami h-a-n-a-m-i Hanami uh basically literally means flower viewing but when the Japanese use that term what it really means to them is like a party and a picnic underneath the cherry blossoms I've got some videos to show you what those look like but you will see these blue tarps all around and then there's the festivals the Matsuri often at night these come up mostly with food but also with entertainment and then many places also light up the cherry blossoms to see at night which is another neat way to see them although I think they look better in the day you can certainly take better pictures during the day too um okay so uh I've got you know they say a picture's worth a thousand words and a video's worth a thousand pictures over the years we've seen a number of different cherry blossom spots and so we're gonna be diving back into the yellow Productions archive right here as I'm going to be showing you some of these sites and attractions the first one I want to show you here uh we're gonna watch about two and a half minutes of this video from 10 years ago that I did but you know what these cherry blossom trees they're still there uh these are along the shiroshi river in ogawara town Miyagi prefecture in the tohoku region so North Japan uh it's one of the most popular cherry blossom spots in Japan this particular River gets 200 000 visitors every year to come to this river to see these cherry blossom trees it's about 30 minutes from Train by Sendai City uh and so let's take a look at what this one looks like I'm gonna come back we're gonna talk about my favorite thousand year rolled cherry blossom tree we'll see some spots in Kyoto and talk about some of my favorite spots in Tokyo as well and of course take your comments and questions as we go on the live stream right after we take a look at this 200 000 visitor River spot but the most spectacular thing about the cherry blossoms in Japan is the sheer number of them the shiroshi river is lined with over 1 000 cherry blossom trees and in the land of a thousand cherry blossoms there is the cherry blossom walk three and a half kilometers left and right in a loop with the Thousand cherry blossoms where you can go for a casual stroll or an excited skip under the cherry blossom trees also known as Sakura in Japanese but when day turns into night that's when the cherry blossom festivals come out and at night time it's quite a carnival from prizes to Carnival Food Sakura Matsuri here in Japan but the most popular cherry blossom Pastime in Japan is Hanami or picnicking under the blossoms on a very traditional blue Japanese tart to keep yourself nice and clean from the dirty dirt and one of the things that makes picnicking under the cherry blossoms especially convenient here is if you're lazy and don't want to bring your food with you we'll just take a few steps over from the cherry blossoms to the Missouri and you can buy all the food you want just remember you still have to bring your blue or green tarp the popular parks like this one in Sendai will have a ton of people picnicking outside but to get a space people come early put the blue tarp down and write their name or the company name on it to reserve that spot of the park kind of amazing that people actually respect that blue tarp as a space for later but this is Japan after all the land of honesty there's cherry blossoms all over Japan but the fun is where the Sakura Matsuri is and if you're looking for it and you're lost like like we are most of the time just look for these signs and you know you found the festival half the fun of a Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival is eating the fair foods this stand is selling takoyaki or breaded octopus that big reddish pile is octopus meat one of my favorite foods is Yakitori or meat on a stick how can you go wrong some of the most popular Meats being chicken you can get chicken meat on a stick chicken skin on a stick and my favorite chicken heart on a stick while some of the most beautiful cherry blossoms are found in Parks like this one in Sendai they're also found all over Japan in City squares and city streets the best time to visit Japan to see the cherry blossoms is in March or April and I highly recommend it because the cherry blossoms are truly magnificent truly magnificent indeed the American Mafia says I look so young in that video definitely the way back machine right there all right before we go on to one of my other favorite spots in all of Japan the maharu Taki zakura the 1 000 year old cherry blossom tree I want to hit up some more of your comments and questions uh for those that are on the live stream if you're watching the archive and you got a question hit me up too because I answer the comments in the archive as well John says cherry blossom cheese and season looks so hot and Kathy says oh no chicken heart chicken heart definitely my favorite Yakitori sticks and OC girl her favorite are the chicken skin that's right you can get like there will be these stalls that they just have like mounds and mounds of chicken skin that they put on sticks and fire over coal and uh they are super delicious dining with Derek says I love chicken heart Yakitori too Heather says you looked like a kid you know I'm a kid at heart it doesn't matter how old I get and Brandon says with cameras nowadays you can actually get great shots of the sakura trees at night for sure I hope to bring back some good night photography this year uh Kathy says we arrive in Tokyo March 11th if we stay a couple weeks we may see the cherry blossoms I think you'll start to see them uh forming a bit like not the 100 Bloom at least on the current dates but you know maybe 80 Bloom uh definitely see if there's any Sakura Matsuri cherry blossom festivals when you're there Esther says yeah when you rent a kimono where kimono the wooden shoes are uncomfortable uh they sure are and you know what the um the rental places for kimono they always give me the wooden shoes and I'm always like I'm wearing my sneakers and they're always a guest what do you mean oh just take the wooden shoes because you might want them for pictures and I'm like they don't fit my uh size 14 feet they just don't so I wear sneakers in my kimono uh you know what you can you can do what you want um Brandon says I love the Starbucks Cherry Blossom stuff points traveler says how are the airline reward redemptions for this spring is there a lot of availability it depends what you mean by a lot of availability right now I've got two flights locked in we've got one on United to Narita LAX Narita and then we have a second reservation on American Airlines uh they they go LAX to haneda so I did find award availability at the point saver rates although it's kind of like you know a little bit spotty it's not like they're open every day but there certainly are tickets available which is which is actually better than most years where you'd never find a word availability during cherry blossom season uh and I and uh Gene says which city will you be visiting for cherry blossoms we're gonna we're gonna head into Tokyo and then see the region from there because we have uh the spunky princess our three-year-old daughter we're gonna do this as a driving trip so the best way to see the cherry blossoms is to go out into the country so whatever airport we'll be going in we're gonna be picking up a rental car and we're gonna be driving around that's why I say Tokyo area and not really Central Tokyo but around Tokyo all right so now let's go ahead and check out probably the like the coolest cherry blossom tree that we've seen in Japan this one's called the maharu takisakura it is a 1 000 year old cherry blossom tree the way we found this place is we were staying in Sendai which is the biggest city on the mainland of Japan north of Tokyo and we just we rolled in to the tourist information and we said like hey what are great places to see here and they're like go see the maharotaki zakura you got to get on a bus here's the bus that you get on 30 minutes later we get to this place the last place we looked at had 200 000 visitors a year that come to see those cherry blossom trees along the river this single tree this one tree that we're gonna see here has 300 000 people that visit this tree annually in like a span of about four weeks so it's uh quite an amazing attraction all right here we go is the mihara a 1 000 year old cherry blossom tree that's one of the three best trees in Japan and the amount of people here is absolutely astounding the Taki zakura is quite an impressive tree it stands 19 meters tall the branches spread out 22 meters across and the trunk is nine and a half meters in circumference amazing but the most amazing thing here is not the tree but the amount of people that are here to see the tree tour bus after tour bus pull up to the tree for pictures and they've even stacked the people taking pictures so they can have pictures of multiple tour groups at the same time there's also a small village selling gifts and cherry blossom related food items anybody up for some cherry blossom tea or perhaps some cherry blossom ice cream me me but I guess the city doesn't make enough money just off the snacks and gifts and they charge a 3 100 yen admission fee just to come in to see the tree but it's well worth the admission to see this very Grand cherry tree so if you find yourself near Sendai when the cherry blossom alright so that was pretty neat OC girl in the chat uh was answering Kathy's point about well we see cherry blossoms if we're in Tokyo March 11th and ocigo recommends uh travel South to see the Sakura because as uh as you heard me say they bloom first in the South and then to the north and that forecast is for like the main variety of cherry tree but there's different varieties that bloom at different times and so in the description I've got the link to the like Japanese language site about forecasts and so you can go through there translate it to English and see more detail on specific areas uh all right and uh flying says hello from Guam love the informative videos I'm going to be in Japan March 18th um would I be able to see the cherry blossoms in that time I think you will um but you gotta go in the South to see them the places where it's warmer you will see them first all right um now a lot of people go to Kyoto and a lot of people say well Chris okay you showed me a river you showed me a tree a single tree the Mahari a single tree it's a this amazing single tree but it's one tree um like a place that we like to go to are Gardens and Parks because we get away from the masses and the hordes uh this one is at the Kyoto National Garden which was a really neat kind of peaceful place to see the cherry blossoms cherry blossoms at the Kyoto National Garden in Japan I'm Chris and today we're going to be showing you around all the beautiful cherry blossoms in this Garden the Kyoto National Garden is a large Park in the center of Kyoto that is also home to the Kyoto Imperial Palace the Park is open to anyone at any time for free but the best time to visit is in April to see the cherry blossoms cherry trees are scattered throughout the park but the best ones are located near the Children's Park up in the upper left corner of this map near the pond are some beautiful weeping cherry blossom trees truly a sight to behold cherry blossom viewing in Japan is definitely a Japanese national Pastime and people enjoy the cherry blossoms in different ways some come to admire them via a stroll in the park others come to take pictures of the cherry blossom trees others come to have pictures taken of themselves in front of the cherry blossom trees or perhaps themselves and they're pet in front of the cherry blossom trees or this guy is taking a picture of his pet the cat in the cherry blossom tree you can generally tell the most popular trees this one's actually a magnolia by the number of people taking pictures in front of them this group was funny because they all had tripods though some of the tripods didn't have any cameras I think they were resting from taking too many pictures the picture taking can be pretty tiring well especially when you have huge lenses like this I think I'm having some lens Envy here even more popular than picture taking is picnicking under the cherry blossoms and there are some excellent picnic spots in this park along with some neat wooden table setup although some of the most spectacular cherry blossom trees are fenced off and roped off so that people don't trample the roots the biggest ones are also propped up so they don't blow down in the wind some of these trees are truly quite spectacular this one included and when the wind blows it looks like it's snowing cherry blossoms this park is home to more than just cherry blossom trees in fact there are plum trees and peach trees this one a peach tree I think is just as pretty if not more in the cherry blossoms but because they're peaches they're a little bit neglected and not as popular as the cherry blossom trees that's okay I like you peach tree so if your travels take you to Kyoto yeah and uh Esther points down the chat that in addition to Peach Plum blossoms bloom around the same time there are so many things blooming in Japan you look at all these different flowers and you might even ignore the cherry blossoms because you're like I like these ones that are purple better these ones that are pink um uh Raynard says hey we're going April 15th 27th where do you recommend to see the best cherry blossom sites so that thousand-year-old cherry blossom tree which is outside of Sendai that'll probably be blooming about the time that you're going uh but also you probably want to go up North so north of Sendai the aomori region that's the most northern part of the Mainland of Japan that's probably where you're gonna see the best stuff this year around that time lavender lamb says is there any special etiquette for viewing the blossoms respectfully um while while I would say this I didn't intend this to necessarily be an etiquette class I mean in Japan there's generally a lot of etiquette about really respecting other people being respectful of your camera you know they they like to be quiet but you'll see as we get to some of the busier places a lot of that etiquette um kind of gets thrown out the window I mean I am amazed by the number of people the tarps that are the blue tarps that people put down and like six o'clock for us and nobody's there and people just respect that that's their tarp I think it's totally amazing I think the number one thing uh Japanese people would ask and by the way if there are some Japanese people to watch the archive and want to comment on this be like Chris you didn't get it right um is to take your trash with you uh particularly if you're eating food many of these Parks don't have trash cans they expect you to pack your trash back to the hotel where you're staying or maybe the train station you won't find a lot of public trash cans in Japan which is odd for a lot of first time visitors now in addition to Gardens and Parks shrines are great places to see the cherry blossoms one of our favorite places in Kyoto to see them was at the hirano shrine so let's take a look at their cherry blossom festivities famous Hanami spots it has been hosting a Cherry Blossom Festival annually since the year 985. the hirano shrine is well known for its many different varieties of cherry blossoms and there are over 10 different varieties of cherry blossoms on this site as you can see here which makes this a great spot to come early bloom or late bloom because there are bound to be some blossoms blooming pink picker or even White admission to the shrine is free and in addition to daytime viewing they also illuminate the cherry blossoms at night with illumination available until 9pm once you finish admiring the cherry blossoms in the temple Courtyard you can continue along this path and admire the cherry blossoms with some of your fine fake animal friends pigs deers and pandas oh my not only can you admire the cherry blossoms by viewing them but you can enjoy them by drinking them they sell for 100 yen a essentially cherry blossom tea it's preserved and salted cherry blossoms that they pour hot water on and okay it is wonderfully salty it doesn't taste like cherries in case you're wondering and actually the flour in it is edible at the end so after finishing the cup of tea this seems like something that a Eastern medicine doctor might prescribe to make you well last thing I've got the cherry blossom flower Down the Hatch wow that's a really salty flower on the side walkway up to the shrine they have a vendor area set up where you can buy all sorts of tasty Japanese Foods if you want to picnic here you'll need to picnic at one of these vendors there are no personal blue tarp picnicking spots but these vendors have set up some neat tatami areas that are perfect for picnicking rain or shine before I conclude this video I just wanted to provide a note on access to the shrine because it's not super obvious on how to get here from Kyoto station you can take bus number 205 or number 50. it's about a 45 minute bus ride and you'll want to get off at the bus stop named kinagasagomai I'll repeat that the way the bus announces it you might want to combine a trip to the hirano shrine to one of kiro's most famous sites the Temple of the golden Pavilion it's just about a 20 minute walk away from the shrine and Heather asks was OC girl with you on this 10 year old trip and yes all of these cherry blossom trips that we took OC girl has been with me on all those trips because who is going to hold the camera after all if it's not OC girl yeah and so uh when we did like the maharotaki zakura things like that that was Northern Japan Kyoto's down in the South so we did these on different trips we generally kind of like pick a region and focus on a region as opposed to running across the whole country we did aomori in the north um but that was before I was really prolific in video two um all right now I mentioned sites in Tokyo and I know a lot of people go to Tokyo so I want to hit some popular Tokyo sites but I also mentioned to you that they're really busy they are really busy uh when a trip we took to Tokyo we were there at a time when they opened up the grounds of the Imperial Palace so that people could see the cherry blossoms inside and this is what that that looked like but if you go to many of Tokyo's major cherry blossom sites like oweno Park Naka meguro that we'll talk about after I show you this video they're going to be busy like this if you're thinking peace and quiet for cherry blossoms Central Tokyo's not where you're gonna find them because let me show you what is Central Tokyo cherry blossom attraction looks like cherry blossoms inside the Tokyo Imperial Palace this gate is only open very rarely and for a few days here in 2014 April they've opened the gate so you can go in and see the cherry blossoms I feel like I'm a little bit part of a herd but pretty excited to go through those Gates this special opening was to celebrate the emperor's 80th birthday from April 4th to 8th just five short days visitors were allowed to walk down in New Or Dory Street 750 meters from the entrance at the sakashita gate to exit at the anui games when most people think of viewing cherry blossoms they think of peace and quiet maybe having a picnic or composing a haiku but this is really the opposite of peace and quiet because you're here with ten thousand of your closest Tokyo friends and actually here's one of my close Tokyo friends now Samuel hey Chris how's it going excellent good to see you the amount of people visiting the Imperial Palace on these five days was truly in incredible from the moment leaving Tokyo Station all I had to do was follow the herd this herd and I was directed the whole time by helpful Japanese police officers and there were a significant amount at the beginning of the line they wore police uniforms but as you get closer to the Palace they were now wearing suits watching the line go by keeping the peace walking traffic through the palace isn't forced to be one way only this way though there are occasional stops to take pictures you can tell where the sights are because there will be 50 people taking photos I've really never seen so many people jockeying for position trying to take pictures of an empty robe I'll be at an empty road with a future boss Retreats but you could only stand in one place admiring the cherry blossoms for so long before the police officers would get kind of cranky on their megaphones I'm not exactly sure what they're saying I'll let you be the judge let's listen in for a moment thank you wow now that was some peaceful cherry blossom viewing right there okay let's go move along and see the next spot I mean wait I forgot there were like a hundred thousand people here let's slowly walk forward in a mob to go see the next spot and then once the rain starts The Umbrellas come out you're no longer looking at cherry blossoms you're now looking at 10 000 umbrellas and of course the mob slows down even if you're thirsty and you want to drink some of the Imperial Palace water because it's certainly better here they have a sink set up where you can go up and get some water and that takes us to just about the end of a new adori Street 750 meters of not the most peaceful cherry blossom viewing experience but I do have to say one of the most interesting that I could share with a hundred thousand of my closest Tokyo friends and so if you're in Tokyo and even if it's not for the emperor's 80th birthday there are a lot of cherry blossom spots you can check out and this is at the Toca Imperial Palace this is the public part you can see this is where the moat is if you want to get away from the crowds you can rent a boat and go out there uh the other really popular spot in Tokyo is ueno Park which is a neat park in Central Tokyo although you can see by this picture uwano Park just about as busy as the Tokyo Imperial Palace and then the other spot to check out in central Tokyo that if you just like Google search um cherry blossoms in Tokyo this picture comes up over and over and over again or I say a picture of this place this is Naka meguro there's a canal nakamego is the closest train station to there and there's this canal that runs through there that is lined by cherry blossoms super picturesque if you do go there there is a Starbucks Reserve Roastery that Starbucks spent like hundreds of millions of dollars on this place it's like five stories they've got special cherry blossom drinks they've got Terraces you can sit outside even if you don't love Starbucks check out the Starbucks Reserve Roastery if you check out the cherry blossoms in nakameguru in Tokyo and I saw in the chit chatter that uh people said like hey Chris um you know another great place to see the cherry blossoms is in Washington DC not even in Japan Washington DC because Japan gave a whole gift of cherry blossoms to Washington DC which indeed they did and so the last location I want to show you uh just a couple minutes of the cherry blossoms in Washington DC this is going to be the earliest video I was showing you as part of this stream uh this one I did in 2009 so excuse the editing or lack of Polish or naivete in the delivery of this video but then I'll come back and answer remaining questions that are here and do the giveaway of a yellow Productions crew shirt as I typically do so let's see what the cherry blossoms in Washington DC look like in particular if you're from the U.S great place to go and see that or you're in the U.S great place to go see the cherry blossoms [Music] Festival from Washington DC let's go check out the blossoms shall we as you can see behind me the cherry blossoms are blooming this is the Tidal Basin uh by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial back in that direction over a hundred years ago Japan gifted approximately 3 000 cherry blossom trees to Washington DC they only bloom for a short time uh about two weeks Peak Bloom this year is forecast to be April 1st through 4th so in about three or four days they should be at Peak Bloom and Peak Bloom is when 80 percent of the blossoms are open and that only lasts for about three or four days so a very short window for quite a treat the cherry blossoms the average lifespan of a cherry blossom tree in Japan is approximately a hundred years but at the Tidal Basin here in Washington DC they only live for about 40 or 50 years the park ranger suspect the reason why the trees in DC don't live as long is just because of the millions of tourists that come to visit them that step on the roots climb on the trees and pick the blossoms so you'll see a friendly beaver when you walk around they'll tell you please do not pick the blossoms each of the trees is marked with a special marker so that the park rangers can track the health of every single tree and also its age here you can see some newly planted cherry trees with one of the older cherry trees in the middle one of the biggest dangers to the young cherry trees is in fact not people but beavers apparently cherry blossom trees are tasty food for beavers thanks to the gift of the initial cherry blossom trees from Japan Washington DC actually has cherry blossom trees all over but the most popular place for people to come to see the cherry blossoms is at the Tidal Basin by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial there's this wonderful sidewalk here where you see the water and the cherry trees drape over the sidewalk some of the trees are so low you have to watch your head when you go under maybe I should have brought my hard hat I'll take it next year as I mentioned earlier the cherry blossoms were still not at Peak Bloom you can see some of the blossoms have flowered While others are still buds well I had to come back when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom so let's check that out about a week later April 3rd pink blue for the cherry blossoms unfortunately the wind has started to pick up which blows the cherry blossoms away but you can still see some of the trees the cherry blossoms really are quite delicate so when the wind picks up it blows them all over the place but luckily the blossoms near the Tidal Basin held up in pretty good condition one of the things I love to do if you are at the cherry blossoms on a snowy day like that is find those blossoms and just pick them up and you can blow them just like you could blow snow so if you're in DC near the DC area that's a great place to see the blossoms and if you're in California there are a few cherry blossom spots in California on San Diego Balboa Park there's a neat um Japanese friendship Garden in Los Angeles there's a place called Lake Balboa that has cherry blossoms but a relatively unknown thing about California and I think blossoms that are just as beautiful are in California's Central Valley there are almond blossoms the almond trees and this is a picture of the Almond blossoms bloom uh I think just as pretty can I use prettily as a word just as pretty as the cherry blossom trees although California hasn't built up quite the infrastructure to go see them these bloom in February so if you want to see these and you're in California near California your Central Valley which is basically north of Los Angeles south of Sacramento I've got a whole video all about the Almond blossoms but this video isn't about lemon blossoms it's about cherry blossoms and so if you want to see that I've just went ahead and left a link in the description below fellow explorers it is now q a time if you've got a question I've got an answer [Music] yeah Kathy says uh you must look back on some of these videos and think oh my God what was I doing you know we've all got to start somewhere and the great thing about making those videos uh you know that cherry blossom in DC Video only got like 1800 views since 2009 so nobody was watching them and I go quite Supply more people watch it now and I put it in this live stream uh but um you know uh I uh I definitely look at myself as a uh work in progress with everything James says the Almond blossoms are a nice alternative Brandon says it is almost time Derek says how long are you gonna go to Japan for this coming trip we're going to visit Taiwan in Japan um so we're probably spending about a week in Japan uh and then a little bit more in Taiwan too uh points traveler says Nashville has a great Cherry Blossom Festival I have not been to that one yet but thank you for the tip Japan lover says hey Chris first time this channel I'll be going to Japan for March 27th to April 4th any place to view cherry blossoms just outside of Tokyo like day trips uh great Japan lover I think that's a great time to see the cherry blossoms what I would recommend is in the description um there's a link to the like the Japanese um the Japanese site that has cherry blossom forecasts and it'll dive down into each one of the locations where they are and give you the specific forecast based upon the specific dates they're going to be there so go ahead and check that one out Gene says would you recommend uh oh and use Google Translate to turn into English would you recommend DSLR camera or iPhone for cherry blossoms yeah I think they're both great um you know the thing for cherry blossoms depends what you want do you want the tree do you want the people do you want to be able to zoom you know uh sometimes being able to zoom in really close is nice on an iPhone you don't get a huge Zoom um but I think uh you know iPhones of today are better than DSLR dollars from five years ago so you can't go wrong with any modern camera Derek says how do you like to do laundry when you're in Japan on a long trip we generally look for a laundromat honestly we just kind of like in Tokyo there are laundromats maybe in the bottom of apartment buildings or things like that or sometimes we might look for a hotel that does laundry or has laundry in the hotel I mean it's not a super common thing but there are uh some that have it so yes if you're on a super long trip you gotta do laundry uh and it's a it's a thing that we do if we're there for um I'll say more than about 10 day like 10 days is like the max um that we can go without having to do laundry uh Grant says when you go into Taiwan and Japan well uh like the dates aren't really locked in yet but to see cherry blossoms so cherry blossoms are uh somewhere around it uh and Vancouver said did you see oh did you say a 1 000 year old tree a 1 000 year old cherry blossom tree Dave uh in Fukushima prefecture when you re-watch this you can see all about it Colleen says what do you most look forward to doing back in Japan eating food's pretty good uh I just generally being there I think seeing the site seeing the attractions uh you know we're gonna try to go back to the hakone region again this year which is near Mount Fuji where you sort of take a um like a a cog wheel trick not a cogwheel train like a cable pull train it is a cogwheel train up to a cable car to a boat um looking forward to going in some hot springs just everything about it frankly Ramen got it says it's spring the best time to see the cherry blossom in San Diego Ramen go to the yes if you want to see more about in San Diego you could search for yellow Productions San Diego cherry blossoms you'll see my video All About It Brandon says Chris misses Japan quite a bit uh OC girl Mrs Japan even more Heather said and that's not to say that I don't but uh yes we both missed Japan Heather says University of Washington state has beautiful cherry blossom trees thank you for that tip Heather uh Heather says will the MasterCard be lifted I remember you saying you wouldn't go unless they were yeah and this is where I sit in the category of uh you know when will Japan lift their Mass mandate and it's kind of it's sort of an odd Mass mandate in that it's like not mandated as legally binding as so many other places but still a recommendation from the government and so um you know we just decided that it now's a good time to go before everybody's really gone and we're just gonna put up with the masks where we have to although the good news is you don't have to wear them outside although many Japanese people will we probably won't because we'll be doing a lot of pictures and video um but we're just gonna take it when we do Gene says would you do a live stream from Taiwan that would be awesome the challenge Gene with doing live streams out and about is I I really like high quality you know in addition to going for the live stream I want people to watch the archive and just for a lot of plays out and about the quality is not that great because the bandwidth isn't that great and then nobody watches the archive because they're like oh the quality of this thing stinks so I'm guessing I probably won't when we're in Taiwan but I will bring back a ton of video and you'll definitely see uh lots of videos from Taiwan and Japan chain says you have to try stinky tofu in Taiwan I love it I have had stinky tofu many times to which I will say it is definitely an acquired taste that I have yet to acquire the taste of oh see girl loves her stinky tofu though uh and there's many places around here in Orange County that we go and have stinky tofu actually when we were coming back from where are we coming back from uh we were coming back from a trip recently that we would like a drive like a road trip that we took recently and uh we're just like we've you know found some restaurant Yelp it was uh they didn't have any indoor seating so we went to the restaurant next door which was a Taiwanese restaurant and yes OC girl got the stinky tofu from there and I got the pork chop fried rice uh Ramen golden says what area are you planning to stay in Taipei that's a great question uh not booked our hotels yet so we know sometimes on things we're like really early planners but since we haven't booked all the flights yet we've booked some of the flights but not the whole trip we also haven't booked uh where we're seeing uh Brandon's I probably wouldn't see it if it's live streamed in Taiwan yeah because I'd be a night owl up at a time that you wouldn't watch it Heather says what is stinky tofu stinky tofu is a um fermented pickled kind of you could say tofu uh that's uh often deep fried and it uh it really stinks it really it really does have a strong odor um and so people haven't acquired that taste maybe can't get past the smell but people who love it say they really love the taste and the smell doesn't bother them the average Joe says I'd be interested in the video about differences between Japan and Taiwan all right Average Joe consider that a video idea for the future Japan versus Taiwan Kathy says I like to book at least 12 months in advance that is some early planning Kathy uh we we never booked that far out uh we're probably like three months out at most um and obviously now or maybe like at uh at two months out uh Charlotte says are you gonna do anything when you hit 300 000 subscribers for 285 right now uh yeah I don't know backflip off a waterfall what do you think what should I do when I hit 300 000 subscribers by the way if you're enjoying this video and you haven't hit the thumbs up button please give it a thumbs up every like of this video go to feed a piece of Pam boot to the yellow Productions crew really helps them stay fed helps the YouTube algorithm lets YouTube know that you like it so they can share this video with other people uh Grant says how about a packing video for Taiwan Japan all right grant I will add that to the idea list too uh Gene says star Lux is a new Airline from Taiwan they do Taiwan Japan they do um but here's the Taiwan Japan thing and I just looked at Starbucks Airlines today from uh Taiwan to Japan and they fly from Tokyo Narita so they fly from Taipei tpe into Tokyo Narita and like the departure times like 8 30 in the morning and I'm not sure that's quite how early I want to get a three-year-old up in the morning but I do hope to fly at Starbucks Airlines eventually maybe they have some better timed flights than that one uh lavender lamb says are you drinking anything today yeah I guess I've been sneaking in my drinks as I've been playing the side videos but today I am drinking just a regular iced tea from one of my favorite Mexican spots in Orange County Baja Fish Tacos [Music] where I had lunch today Blue Sky 7 says is this the spunky princess first time visiting Japan it sure will be um so we've been showing her pictures and video of Japan saying we're gonna go here uh in a couple months Mrs classes I tell everyone to check out yellow Productions on YouTube thank you for that very much Mrs clay I appreciate it Esther says I used to live in a Chinese area of New York City the smell of stinky tofu always wafted up to my apartment every weekend uh meritocratic Mafia says will the OC girl make a special appearance when you hit 3 000 subscribers you know she made an appearance today in the chat and every once in a while if you look at those hotel room mirrors you'll find her in there um Zachary says I live in Taipei most of my favorite restaurants were in shinyi District which is a good place for food Zachary how long did you live in Taipei um and the average Joe says if you're looking for Mexican food in Taipei it's Eddie's Cantina wow all right you know what um as someone who grew up in San Diego I am probably gonna pass on the Mexican food in Taipei though it might be interesting to eat just to like have that cultural experience about what this Mexican food what is what is Mexican food in Taipei really because I find most Mexican food that I eat in places like that are really far away from Mexico doesn't seem to resemble Mexican food all that much another one of these like uh food changes so uh many of you know I'm half checked my mom is from the Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia as it used to be called and Chinese food in the Czech Republic if you go to like their equivalent of like a Panda Express or you know fast food Chinese restaurant instead of getting rice it may very well come with french fries because the Czechs love their potatoes and so you'll get broccoli beef but not with steamed rice but with french fries instead I'm like what what what in the name of the world is this Colleen says you're gonna go to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan I don't think we're gonna make it down to the Osaka region for this trip uh RAM and go says have you ever tried Taiwanese food all the time of course one of my favorite restaurants around anywhere is Din Tai Fung which makes really delicious Taiwanese soup dumplings and Kathy says we're gonna be in Taipei for a couple days next year before our cruise so Kathy hopefully my Taipei update series will be helpful for you on our next trip Zachary says when we lived in Taiwan my Taiwanese friends would joke that the Chinese would eat anything with four legs except the table all right yes it's the time you've been waiting for it's time for the giveaway all right fellow explorers it's time to give away a yellow Productions crew shirt if you can answer one of my questions correctly and my question for you is what is my favorite kind of Yakitori to eat in Japan what do I like on that stick that they roast over charcoal if you were the first person to answer that question I will send you a yellow Productions Cruise shirt anywhere in the world and if you don't win one but you want to buy one you can pick one up for you or a friend or a loved one at the yellow production shop the address is right here it's also in the description and if you're wondering Chris when is the next live stream well you can head over to update.yellardashproductions.com and sign up for my email list or I'll send you an email as soon as it's scheduled what the topic is uh probably doing one next week not sure of the day yet so stay tuned and now we have a winner winner chicken dinner congratulations to meritocratic Mafia you win you were the first person to say chicken heart spelled correctly dining with Derek so close but you got a q in there which is not hard so meritocratic Mafia you win send me an email to Chris at yellowdashproductions.com and I will get that right to you second place goes to Heather and third place goes to Kell well fellow explorers always great hanging out with you if you're looking for a video to watch next check out my video about the Almond blossoms in California you'll find a link to that in the description or if you're watching the archive in the pinned comment and as usual I won't say goodbye because I'm gonna see you in the next video

Channel: Yellow Productions

Views: 8,286

Keywords: cherry blossoms, sakura, cherry blossoms japan, japan cherry blossoms, cherry blossom

Id: CDZ3hBCCcr0

Length: 56min 0sec (3360 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 17 2023