Obara Shikizakura Festival
It’s almost impossible to choose between cherry blossoms and autumn foliage.
The two most popular seasonal attractions have a lot to offer, but who says you can’t enjoy them both at the same time?
Obara district in Toyota, Aiichi prefecture is home to the one-of-a-kind Obara Shikizakura Four-Season Cherry Blossom Festival, where pale pink sakura bloom in the autumn against a backdrop of gorgeous fall foliage for an effect that is nothing short of magical.
In Japan, the season for sakura is usually late-March through early-April. But this cherry trees are of a unique species known as Shikizakura (四季桜), which translates to “four season sakura.”
They bloom twice a year – first in spring and again in autumn.
The flowers color are white to pale pink (less bright than the Sakura we see over Japan in April) and are much smaller than the usual sakura (less flower volume) .
Over 10,000 of these rare sakura trees grow in the district. They typically become peak from mid to late November, which coincides perfectly with the peak of the autumn leaves season.
The Fall Foliage
The area also has so beautiful foliage colors. That even if there was not Shikizakura , it was still beautiful!
Look at this colors …
The places the festival happening
There are main 3 places to see these beautiful scenes through Obara Shikizakura Festival:
Obara Fureai Park
The Obara Shikizakura Festival is held every year at Fureai Park, there you can experience the breathtaking view of the park’s 300 shikizakura trees along its serene walking paths. As part of the festival, there will be taiko drum performances, haiku competitions, food stalls, and other events throughout the park.
Some of the sweets that you can buy there.
Also the city has a funny mascot character that actually fits to the place. A mascot that his hair is from Sakura and the ears are fall foliage .
Senmi Shikizakura-no-Sato.
In Senmi Shikizakura-no-Sato you can see over 1,000 shikizakura trees on a hilly area, which has steep trails (and there one small shrine that you can see while walking).
There also a few food stalls (but less than the Furai Park). It is more scenic spot to see the cherry trees with the autumn foliage.
The small shrine up the hill:
The view while walking up & the view from the hill:
Kakigairi Walking Path
This walking path is right downstream from Senmi Shikizakura-no-Sato (About 10 minutes walk) and there you can enjoy autumn colors and shikizakura line both banks of the river, making it an ideal place for a leisurely walk.
The Kakigairi walking path along the river:
While Aichi Prefecture typically doesn’t make its way onto the travel plans of many tourists in Japan, we do recommend you to consider this place into your schedule if you have plans to travel to Japan in the November. It’s definitely worth the trip! We are actually been there twice already. And really enjoyed this beautiful view.
Information
Name:
Obara Shikizakura (小原四季桜)
Fees:
Free
Best time to see:
mid-November thru early-December
*Peak season varies by year
Access:
From Toyotashi Station or from Umetsubo station, there a Toyota Oiden bus. It takes approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Address:
Obara-cho, Toyota-shi, Aichi 470-0506
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