Cherry blossom forecast 2020

Just read this:

https://n-kishou.com/corp/news-contents/sakura/?lang=en

How accurate is the first forecast? Tokyo feels early but that might just be my imagination...

No one knows for sure, but it's usually the end of March or early April when the chery blossom season starts. It does also make a difference depending which part of Japan you are in as the season varies and starts in different areas for example, in Tokyo may start after Osaka or vice versa. The rule of thumb is usually end of March or early April.

Higher elevations are colder, so the cherry trees bloom later. A few years ago, I went to Mount Koya just after golden week (early May), and the tree at the temple that I stayed at had bloomed, and was losing petals.

Mount Yoshino in the Kansai Region, is one of the popular cherry blossom spots in Japan, and has about 1000 cherry trees at four different elevations on the mountain.

Not all cherry trees bloom at the same time. I know that Chichibu (neat Tokyo) has planted late blooming cherry tree varieties in the park near Seibu-Chichibu Station. They have a Moss Phlox Festival In that park in late April/early May, and there�fs a chance the cherry trees will still be in bloom during the festival.

The other option is to go North. Hokkaido will have a later blooming season than the Kansai region.

Good Luck, in planning your vacation.

Most first forecasts are fairly accurate. Unless there is a longish cold spell I would expect these dates to be about right.

The Japan Meteorological Corporation released the first forecast on January 10: https://www.jrailpass.com/blog/japan-cherry-blossom-forecast. The next update will be published on January 24. But of course, predicting the weather almost a year in advance is not accurate 100%. For example, checking last year's fall foliage forecast, the perfect time for Koyo in Tokyo was from the end of November until the first days of December. So let's see what happens this year. 

With 600 varieties of cherry, there is some in bloom somewhere pretty much year round (plus all the plum, apple, apricot and other types I see.) Saw some nice plum blossom here in Tokyo today.

The forecast should be irrelevant to planning a trip. For the tours I do I get seasons a week early or late and I just go to places I know have great displays for that particular day. Even Shinjuku National Gardens here in Tokyo has a six week blossom season - hardly like you'll miss out.

Given a choice of a week early (tiny buds on trees) and a week late (pedals falling all over the place at the slightest breeze), I would choose a week late.

I agree with that though if you are lucky the plum blossom will be going strong just before the sakura bloom, at least that was our experience several years back.

The second forecast is up in the original link. Seems that Tokyo has crept from 25/3 to 18/3. And I booked flight two days ago. Maybe should have waited a few days, now I will be arriving 25/3 but that should be alright as long as blossom doesn�Lt move further. Otherwise I have to move out from Tokyo.

I completely overlooked cherry blossoms when booking my flights this year as I just wanted to get 2 weeks in immediately before the easter holidays, but as it happens we arrive in Nara on the 26th for about 5 days in the prefecture then up to Gifu area from the 2nd for about 5 days before finishing at Hikone for a few days. Not to gloat but I couldnt have planned it better for sakura if I tried. Well, actually I am gloating a little but in an excited way rather than a boasty one.

We went in March 2018, too early for cherry blossoms, or so we thought.

It snowed on a few blossoms the day we left Yokohama, and by the time we got to Hagi about five days later, the blossoms were just beautiful, and they followed us around until we left from Tokyo in early April.

Just lucky, and we made the most of it.

Have a wonderful time in Japan.