Joetsu

One of our goals was to experience cherry blossoms in Japan.  Luck for us, we were present for the cherry blossom peak in both Joetsu and Kanazawa!  

Snowcapped mountains, cherry blossoms, and the castle moat in Joetsu

In Joetsu, we went to Takada Park to see the 4000 cherry blossom trees in bloom.  This park is apparently quite popular among Japanese tourists, but less so among foreigners.  I hadn’t read about it in my trip planning and we only saw one other foreigner there.  The cherry blossoms are planted around the old castle moat and streets.  As my first experience of a Japanese cherry blossom ‘festival’, I’d describe it as cherry blossoms-meet-nightmarket.  There were tons of food stalls selling snacks.  While it was busy, it was not uncomfortably busy.  There were still empty roads of cherry blossoms to be discovered.  Takada Park is particularly well known for the cherry blossom illumination at night, with thousands of lanterns.  We only managed a driveby of the illumination as the little monkey was a bit cranky and we had a long drive home still.  

Nighttime cherry blossom illumination