Kawazuzakura Matsuri   河津桜祭り

One of the earliest opportunity to witness bunch of sakura is - along the bank of Kawazu River. I was thrilled to find out about this place while researching for my Tokyo trip. I knew I was too early for the full bloom of sakura in Tokyo city but no choice, I have to match my trip with the only spring break I have. But thankfully, I found out about Kawazuzakura Matsuri and immediately set my mind to visit this place, no matter what. 

Kawazu Cherry Blossom Festival is held annually from early February to early March in Kawazu, a small city in the Izu prefecture. It is also near to Atami, a city famous for Ume (plum trees) and onsen experience. I managed to find a 2-days train pass to Kawazu but it was frustrating as there wasn't much information of it in English. I think they launch similar passes every year so hopefully this will help you when you plan a short visit to Kawazu.

How to get there

We used the Minami Izu Free pass (as shown above), which includes a round trip ticket from Tokyo to Ito station and unlimited rides on Izukyoko Line that travels between Ito station and Izukyu-Shimoda Station. According to their website, this pass is sold till May 1st, 2017 but I believe similar passes are sold each year so be sure to check out the JR Izu website!

Minami Izu Free Pass 

The Minami Izu Free pass is selling for 6160 yen but since we were traveling to Kawazu on the last weekend of the Kawazuzakura Matsuri period, the officer recommended us to pay extra to get a reserved seat as it can be pretty packed on the train. Fear of having to stand for 2.5 hours to reach Kawazu, we paid that extra 2190 yen to get the reserved seats. 

Fact: Almost 2 million visitors are attracted to Kawazu to celebrate this early bloom of Kawazuzakura. 

The reserved seats area.

Breakfast on the train of course!

If I am not wrong, the early trains tend to depart from either Tokyo station or Shinjuku station, same goes to the trains returning from Izu prefecture. We took the 8 am train departing from Tokyo station and arrived at Kawazu at 10.30 am. For 500 yen, we rented a locker to store our backpacks in the station before walking to the Kawazu RIver. 

  

Kawazuzakura Matsuri

Once you get out of Kawazu station, turn right and walk all the way. Turn left when you see a wide street with lots of local Japanese selling their home-grown fruits, sakura-themed food, Japanese omiyage etc..

A pretty cafe along the river.

This year, the weather turned warm much earlier than before therefore the full bloom happened earlier than previous years. We were too late for the full bloom where literally, the whole tree is pink and purely pink all along the river bank. When we got there, green leaves has already started growing so rather than pure pink, we see a blend of green and light pink on most trees ㅠ.ㅠ

Thankfully there are still a few fully pink sakura trees, so we still got some good photos there. We were lucky to be the first few to spot this tree, that means... lots of time for us to shoot. 

You know when people get excited for first snow right? We are excited for the first pink sakura tree! 

첫눈? 아냐.. 첫 벚꽃 나무다!

Happiness overload  :D

Halfway walking, we saw this foot spa area where I thought it would be a good spot to rest our feet. But the water is super duper hot, definitely higher than 45 degree celsius. 

HOT HOT!

Next up, heading to DHC Akazawa Day Onsen House and spend a night at Ito.

To be continued...