24/10/2026
Over a thousand cherry trees turn Japan’s forest into a pink island
Takami no Sato in Higashiyoshino Village, Nara Prefecture, is a garden with more than a thousand weeping cherry trees growing on a hillside at around 650 meters above sea level. The garden was born from a wish to create a weeping cherry garden in the middle of the wilderness, so it looks like a patch of pink that just appeared out of the forest.
Because it sits so high up, the cherry trees here bloom later, so the peak usually comes around mid April, when the blossoms in many other places are already gone. Visually, the contrast between bright pink and the dark green trees around it makes the garden stand out like a painting. The colors are rich too, from soft light pink to bolder deep pink.
