In yesterday’s post, I discussed the history of hanami.
But for this post, I want to discuss how one is able to secure a spot for hanami.
No matter where you go, the last two weeks of March and the first two weekends of April are going to be busy.
But for the first Saturday, it’s tough and I’ll share with you my experience, as I had a chance to see it first hand.
As mentioned in the last post, Yozakura is night hanami and on the Friday night, people are securing their spots to prepare for the Saturday. To have the best spot under the cherry blossoms, the spots are first come, first serve.
Yoyogi Park in Tokyo is one of the prime spots for people to visit for Hanami and during hanami, people were out quite late. I left the Yozakura around 11:00 p.m. and there were quite a few people arriving to get their positions ready.
It’s absolutely freezing at night (even worse when it rains the night before the big party). But for the Welcome Tokyo Yozakura, he had small heaters and people had their coats and blankets ready. And everyone was enjoying the experience despite the cold weather.
But the organizer camped overnight after the Yozakura ended and it’s something he is used to doing and it’s the sacrifice to get the best spot. And for Welcome Tokyo, they had four huge tarps to accommodate a large number of people.
I was able to attend numerous Hanami picnics/parties in 2019 and actually was there early for one event, before people started showing up and actually helped out by maintaining the area and stayed with other staff/volunteers making sure they had placemarkers for their area and also to let people know they claimed that area.
I noticed people coming in the morning, wanting to be in the area or near the area, as it was already claimed but it really takes a lot of dedication, perseverance to make sure those locations are carefully selected and it was quite interesting to see.
The last two weekends in March and the first two weekends of April are quite large and busy.
As I assisted, I help to make sure there were something heavy to keep the tarp from flipping over or wind blowing it over. I had no idea, that in some areas, there is a grate where the metro blows the tarp from underneath. Didn’t expect to see that.
From 8-10 a.m., it was interesting to see a near empty park, started to really pick up. And around 11:00 a.m., it’s crowded!
My advice, if you have to go to the bathroom, need to eat or drink, do it before it gets busy. While parks may have food trucks or stores nearby have food, you have to get ready for a very large line. The line to the bathrooms at the parks are long! I’m talking about wait a half hour to an hour long.
Now for Hanami in other areas, I noticed people doing it during the weekday at Ueno, Tokyo Midtown, etc. But I’ve also seen it crazy on the Saturday and Sunday. For Ueno, the park is a tourist trap, so along with the people walking around the park and checking out the zoo, museum, etc., that location gets crowded.
Yoyogi Park and Inokashira Park are primarily parks that bring a lot of people but for hanami, it’s the place to be!
CLICK HERE FOR THE WELCOME TOKYO BIG HANAMI PICNIC (Saturday, March 21st, it’s free!)
