Travel Tips

Hakusan Shrine has many cherry trees (sakura) and and a good number of peach trees (momo) as well. The peach trees also start blooming around the same time in spring as that of the cherry trees. Hakusan also has the willow version of cherry trees (shidare zakura).

Every year in April, Niigata's cherry trees reach full bloom for about a week.
For Japanese people, this is one of the markers for spring time and the
trees are cherished for their fleeting beauty which no sooner do they come into
full bloom and their flowers are blown away by the wind only a few days later.

Typically, people like to have picnics around this time of year if the weather is good enough. Fortunately, this year although it rained heavily in the morning, the rain cleared up and let people enjoy the day under the cherry blossoms. However, by about 3:30 PM the temperature started dropping and it started to drizzle. The point is that enjoying the cherry blossoms can be a short lived event. It's best to plan accordingly.

Our home is only a 2-minute walk from this area so we are able to enjoy the beauty of the cherry trees in this area almost daily while they're in bloom.

These Japanese cherry trees actually don't bare edible fruit. They are planted and adorn riverways, Japanese castle grounds, shrines, temples, and parks throughout Japan.

For a chance to view cherry trees in Japan in other areas and for a calendar of projected blooming periods check out this link:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011.html