Ryusenji / Ryusen Temple is the said to be the home of papercut ‘Goshuin’. A ‘Goshuin’ is a stamp or seal that you can receive for a fee at temples and shrines in Japan. What makes Ryusen-ji’s so special is that they are intricately cut from paper, like a stencil.Read More →
Information for the 93rd annual Satte cherry blossom festival at the beautiful Gongendo Park. This post also contains information for the early blooming Kawazuzakura (Kawazu Cherry blossoms), which should start to bloom around the end of February. You will find that information below the festival information. You can also findRead More →
Konosu Park is located beside the prominent Shouganji temple. Konosu Park is very small, but during the cherry blossom season it attracts hundreds of visitors for its mature cherry blossoms. The scene of the temple gates framed by cherry blossoms certainly adds to the appeal of this location for cherryRead More →
The kawazuzakura at Yamazaki Park have become quite well known, but they are not the only beautiful early March cherry blossoms in Fujimi City. The Yamazaki Park kawazuzakura are reaching full bloom now, as they start in February. But the cherry blossoms in this post are a few days behind.Read More →
Thankfully, so far, the 2026 sakura season seems close to an average year. You might remember, last year (2025), the season was very late to start. The Kawazuzakura, one of the earliest blooming varieties of cherry blossoms, didn’t really start blooming until March in 2025. But this year, they haveRead More →
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 oneRead More →
Did you know Saitama Prefecture is home to Japan’s longest cherry blossom corridor? And according to Saitama City, it is not just the longest, but also Japan’s number 1 “sakura kairo”! Saitama Prefecture, beside Tokyo, is the only prefecture with a twenty kilometer long cherry blossom ‘corridor’ in all ofRead More →
There is one sole Kawazuzakura at Shinryuji temple in Sayama City. But its a beauty. I visited it on Thursday March 13th and, interestingly, three quarters of it were blooming and one quarter was completely bare! I’ve never seen that level of disparity in bloom on a single tree before.Read More →
I’ve shared several photos in stories (Facebook / Instagram) in the last 48 hours that I have got relatively a lot of queries about. I will eventually share all of the locations on Instagram and Facebook pages, but not in the next 24 hours. So exclusively for insaitama.com reader’s only:Read More →
Shokoji – There is a temple in Sakado City, the Kawagoe / Kawajima side, with two beautiful ‘kawazu’ early blooming cherry blossoms. I went to visit them today as they are often in full bloom at this time of year. The featured photo above is from last year when theyRead More →