Hanami under the cherry blossoms in Tokyo's Ueno Park

Hanami means sitting beneath the cherry trees and watching them bloom. Ueno Park is Tokyo's best known and busiest place for it; the trees meet overhead and close above the path.

When: full bloom in Tokyo is typically between late March and the first days of April. Kyoto and Osaka fall in the same window or a few days later; in northern Japan and Hokkaido it shifts to roughly late April into early May. These are typical ranges. The exact dates move every year and are announced in Japan a few weeks before the season starts. Full bloom lasts about a week, so keep your dates wide.

Where to stay: stay somewhere you can reach the park early in the morning. Ueno and the streets around it are within walking distance; staying central and taking the metro also works, but the quietest hour is just after sunrise and reaching it depends on where you sleep. The hotels below are the ones we have published in Tokyo.