With your host to guide you through Nagoya’s most famous cherry blossom viewing spots, you’ll learn what it means to celebrate sakura season like a local. You could buy takeaway tenmusu – chewy rice balls with a dollop of tasty shrimp tempura in the center – and a cold drink at one of downtown Sakae’s popular eateries and join locals for a traditional hanami (cherry blossom viewing) picnic under Nagoya Castle’s blossoming trees.

Or maybe you’ll sample wagashi confections at the traditional teahouse in Tokugawa Garden before slowly strolling down pretty paths lined with trees. A little early for the season? The Higashi Ward is home to a famous street that blooms a cherry blossom tree tunnel at the beginning of March!

In early April, when Japan’s iconic cherry blossom trees erupt with millions of pink and white flowers, get swept up in cherry blossom fever as you marvel at Nagoya’s best-loved sakura locations.

Just north of downtown district Sakae, Nagoya Castle becomes even more fairytale-esque when surrounded by blooming cherry blossom trees. Two miles east, in the traditional Japanese Tokugawa Garden, you could cross delicate wooden bridges over clear koi ponds and under blooming boughs. T

two miles south, the famous Tsuruma Park, one of Japan’s top 100 cherry blossom viewing locations, is perfect for a riverside stroll under a tunnel of pastel pink petals that look even more magical when dusk falls, glowing lights illuminate the bloom.