Cherry blossom season in Kyoto 2016

Hi, when is the sakura season in Kyoto in 2016? Kindly advise the best time to visit. Thank you.

It's far too early to predict the cherry blossom season for next year. It depends heavily on the weather leading up to the season, and so there won't be predictions available for months yet.

sakura season is horribly hard to predict, due to the short-term period that they open.

What i did earlier this year was... I calculated the weather patterns. Judging by the autumn colors changing early last year, i guessed that sakura season would probably come earlier by about a week as well.

On top of that, I also planned to hit different areas in Japan, known for different timings of sakura blossoms. For e.g. Tokyo and Kyoto have the same average blossoming period, while Kanazawa blossoms later.

That way, even if you miss at 1 spot, you'd have other places to catch.

Turns out, my guess was spot on this year. We managed to hit the peak period in most places. So monitor the weather from now till December, and consider different plans should the weather change (i.e. freak snowstorm that can cool down the atmosphere and cause sakura to bloom later).

Thank you for the replies.
is it possible to have a rough estimate of the season? I need to buy air tickets as well as accommodation. ; (
Thanks again.

Hi, cities such as Kyoto are generally the best around the last week of March and the first two weeks of April. If you go these three weeks, it's *almost* impossible to miss the full-bloom in Kyoto. Of course, as mentioned many times above, the season depends on a lot of things but the difference is usually no more than one or two weeks. If you only have one week, the safest is obviously the first week of April but if you're going for the sakura, I'd recommend going at least two weeks just to be safe.

Don't worry, even if you miss the sakura in Kyoto itself, some of the surrounding area offers great places to see sakura even when the sakura in Kyoto are already past their full-bloom.