Kitamoto City has dozens of cherry blossom spots, including one of the five great sakura of Japan. They also have several cherry blossom festivals in different areas of the city, but this one – The Kitamoto Cherry Blossom Festival – is the main one. Throughout the pandemic, at least one of the smaller cherry blossom festivals, or sakura matsuri as they are called in Japanese, actually went ahead each year. But this, the principal Kitamoto Cherry Blossom festival has not been on since 2019, due to the pandemic.
Kitamoto Cherry Blossom Festival 2023
In the past, pre-pandemic, this sakura matsuri actually had three different venues. Takao Sakura Park, Kitamoto Children’s Park and the site of the Kabazakura – the aforementioned great sakura of Japan. In 2023, the festival is only on in Kitamoto Takao Sakura Park only. However, the other two may have a festival of their own. Jougaya embankment, also in Kitamoto, has a festival of its own each year. It was one of that was on the last three years despite the pandemic.
The Kitamoto Cherry Blossom festival at Takao Sakura Park is on Saturday March 25th and Sunday March 26th. For those two days there will be dozens of festival stalls and kitchen cars (food trucks) in the park. In addition, they will have live entertainment. It is a popular festival among locals and is very scenic with the festival stalls backdropped by some of the 200 cherry blossoms in the park. More information about the park and the different varieties of cherry blossoms:
Information
Event: Kitamoto Sakura Matsuri 北本さくらまつり
Date: March 25th and 26th, 2023.
Time: 10 am to 3 pm.
Cost: free.
Venue: Takao Sakura Park, 6 Chome-350-1 Takao, Kitamoto, Saitama 364-0034. View on Google Maps.
Access
For the two days of the festival there is a free shuttle bus from the Kitamoto Station on the Takasaki Line. The timetable of the shuttle bus (linked here).
Parking will be limited at the park itself, but you can use the parking lot of the nearby Kitamoto Waterside Plaza Park during the period of the festival.
Official event page for 2023 .
Editor’s note: this post was temporarily off the website during the pandemic. Republished February 21st 2023.