Minoyama Park straddles both Minano and Chichibu cities with 41 hectares of sprawling nature. Furthermore, it is just one part of the larger Prefectural Nature Park. Moreover, the park is located on a 581 meter high ridge which affords magnificent panorama views. The park has become increasingly well known for two things: its night view and a place where you can see a sea of clouds. In fact, the park has been named as one of Japan’s top 100 night view locations. However, for Saitama-jin the cherry blossoms in the park have long been famous and fondly nicknamed the “Mt Yoshino of the Kanto region“.
Minoyama Cherry Blossoms
In Minoyama Park, there are approximately 8000 sakura trees of various varieties including the Yoshino variety which bloom from about mid April in Minoyama Park. (Yoshino bloom late March on the flatlands of Saitama). The prefecture claims there are 70 different varieties of sakura in the park. Other sources put it at 97 different varieties, but the park itself says there are 55 varieties! Of those, there are about 250 sakura trees of the Sato cherry blossom variety that normally bloom in May. Because the park has many different varieties, you can generally see some cherry blossoms in the park from mid April to about mid May.
The cherry blossom season of Minoyama park in the Chichibu area usually opens around the 8th of April with best viewing at the end of April, even early May. However, in the last few years, like most other places around the Kanto plain, the cherry blossoms were early blooming. In 2023 too. The Somei Yoshino variety bloomed a whole two weeks early last year and the year before. In addition, the yamazakura have also been considerably earlier than the average bloom period.
Minoyama is also called the “forest of flowers“. Apart from the sakura cherry blossoms there are many other flowers that bloom in the park. As the sakura finish up, the azalea start to bloom. After that the hydrangea, which are becoming increasingly well known. They bloom later than other hydrangea spots in Saitama, from around the very end of June to mid July. The view from the park is amazing throughout the seasons. Furthermore, Minoyama is also a great spot for hatsuhinode. Moreover, you can often see a sea of clouds from the top of Minoyama.
Cherry Blossom Light Up 2023
Event: Minoyama Cherry Blossom Light up 美の山桜のライトアップ
Dates: Tuesday April 4th to Monday April 10th 2023
Hours: 6 pm to 9 pm
Cost: free
Venue: Minoyama Park ↴
Park Information
Park: Minoyama Park 身の山公園
Address: Minano, Chichibu District, Saitama 369-1412
Hours: 24 hours
Cost: free
Access Minoyama Sakura
The hike from the nearest train station, Minano (or Oyahana) station on the Chichibu Railway, is a long one in the best of circumstances, but particularly since typhoon Hagibis. Some of the trails have remained closed due to damage from typhoon Hagibis in 2019. It would take about an hour and a half on foot. By car it is about 20 minutes from the station.
By car it takes about an hour from the Hanazono Interchange of the Kanetsu Expressway. Between Autumn 2019 and Spring 2023, one of the access roads to the park was closed. First, due to damage from typhoon Hagibis and then road works to fix that damage. During the period tour buses were not permitted to visit Minoyama Park. However, all road works are finished now.
In the area
There are also late blooming cherry blossoms in Nagatoro. More information here.
Waterpark Nagatoro is also in Minano and it has river activities. If you want to stay overnight they have wood trailers of various sizes.
not so long to go now….