Izu-kogen Cherry Blossoms Festival (Izu-kogen sakura matsuri) is a cherry blossoms viewing festival held for three weeks in two different locations. The three stages of the event are “ookanzakura”, “sakura namiki”, and “sakura no sato” respectively.

The first stage was ookanzakura at various places around the station. Ookansakura is a hybrid between kanhizakura and oshimazakura. Unfortunately, I missed this stage.

The second stag was the sakura namiki (road lined with cherry trees) outside Izu-kogen station is one of the greatest flower viewing spot in Izu. 3000 Yoshino cherry trees line the two sides of a road that stretches on for more than 3 km.

During the blossom period there would be food and drinks stall set up at the starting point of the sakura namiki.

The walkway looked like this all the way. The cherry blossoms were not in full bloom when I was there, despite what the official website claimed. It would look a lot more beautiful during full bloom.

Along the walk I spotted two other kinds of cherry blossoms.

Kanhi cherry blossoms.

And then this impressive tree with a very thick bloom of oshima cherry blossoms.

Close-up shots to show how thick the blossoms were.

The third and final stage was sakura no sato, or “village of cherry blossoms”. There was an incredible 40 different types of cherries here.

As there were so many types of cherries here, they would never all bloom at the same time. When I was there, yoshino cherries were close to full bloom.

Real beautiful, weren’t they?

Just visiting Ito city once is honestly enough for one to see enough cherry blossoms to last a lifetime. This year’s blooming period has already ended, but they bloom every year, so do visit next year!

By Desheng.

Information

For stage 1 and 2 :

For stage 3 :

*Please check for the latest information before visiting.
* This article was written by a trainee from overseas. Please note that there might be spelling and grammar mistakes.