Mount Yoshino in Mid April 2017

Hello,

Apologies if this questions has already been answered on this forum!

A group of us will be arriving in Tokyo on the 11th April 2017 and, like most people, we are all really keen to see the Cherry Blossom. Our original plan was to travel up to Hirosaki, however, given that we only have 2 weeks (and we are visiting both Tokyo and Osaka) I'm not sure if we want to travel all the way up there.

I've read that Mount Yoshino is a beautiful area to visit during this time so I was thinking about visiting on the 14th April. I just wondered if this would be too late in April to see the Cherry Blossom? Is it worth it even if it's not at the peak time? If not, is there anywhere else that we could visit that would be better?

Thanks in advance everyone :)

If it's an average blooming season next year, you'll be a week too late! Yoshino is a lovely small town, but without the cherry blossoms and associated festivities it's a long trip to make for not a lot of things to see.

Since Yoshino is located in the high mountain area, the situation of Cherry blossom blooming is a littel different from urban area.
Yoshino-yama consits of four Cherry blossom viewing places including Shimo-senbon,Naka-senbon,Kami-senbon and Oku-senbon.
They start blooming from the beginning of April at Shimo-senbon and finally start blooming at Oku-senbon in the middle of April.
So I assume you still have a chance to enjoy Cherry blossoms during your proposed trip to Japan in the middle of April.

It really is impossible to predict when the blossoms will come out until about a month before they do. You could get lucky with your date but no promises. On average, you may be too late.
There are some website you can look at that make forecasts on the timing of the blossoms, such as:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/sakura/eng/index.php
http://sakura.weathermap.jp/
http://www.rurubu.com/season/spring/sakura/
http://www.sakurazensen.com/

You might want to try the Fuji Shibazakura Festival:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6919.html
if your schedule allows it. It is not the actual cherry blossom, but it is still very pretty nonetheless.

Thanks for all of your responses, all really helpful :)

Sounds very much like it's up to the forecast!
I think that I'm just going to have to book accommodation in both Tokyo and Osaka and just keep checking the forecast. Closer to the time I'll sort out day trips and go cherry blossom hunting!

Thanks for the other tip also - I've also planned to visit the Fuji Shibazakura Festival, looks beautiful :D