Japan Cherry Blossom Tour: 10 Days from Tokyo to Osaka

Welcome to Japan in blossom season. Your driver meets you at Narita or Haneda and takes you straight to the hotel; if you land early, the nearest park will already be wearing pink.

Row a boat beneath the blossom-lined palace moat at Chidorigafuchi, picnic under Ueno Park's thousand trees like the locals, and finish along the Meguro river, where lanterns light a tunnel of petals after dark.

The postcard everyone knows, earned on foot: 398 steps up to Chureito Pagoda, where Mt Fuji rises over a sea of cherry trees. Cherry-lined north shore of Lake Kawaguchi after lunch, then an onsen ryokan under the mountain.

Cruise Lake Ashi with Fuji on the horizon, ride the ropeway over Owakudani's steam, and stop at Odawara Castle on the way down — its moats ringed with cherry trees in season.

The bullet train delivers you to the old capital. Walk the Philosopher's Path, a two-kilometre canal entirely roofed in blossom, ending at the Silver Pavilion of Ginkaku-ji.

Kiyomizu-dera's wooden stage floats over a valley of blossom, the preserved lanes below sell sakura-everything, and after dark Maruyama Park's great weeping cherry is lit like a chandelier beside Gion.

Morning under Arashiyama's blossom with the Togetsukyo bridge and bamboo grove, then across town to Daigo-ji — the temple where Hideyoshi threw Japan's most famous cherry-blossom party four centuries ago.

Nara Park doubles its magic in bloom: sacred deer bowing beneath the petals, the Great Buddha in Todai-ji's vast hall. By evening you are under Osaka's neon with takoyaki in hand.

Kema Sakuranomiya lines both banks of the Okawa river with four thousand cherry trees — walk it or cruise it — then Osaka Castle rises from its own blossom-filled park. Dotonbori for the last full evening.

A private transfer to Kansai International Airport. Bloom dates move each year — we time this tour to the forecast front, so tell us your window and we will chase the petals with you. Safe travels home.