00:00:03 John Daub: There they are, the cherry blossoms. They're so beautiful. And you'll find them all over the city of Tokyo. In fact, you'll find them all over the country at different times during the month of March and April. But in this episode, I wanted to take a step back. This is the Sumida River in Tokyo. Everybody talks about when the cherry blossoms are going to start. Not that many people talk about when it's actually going to finish and how long these cherry blossoms last. So in this episode, I thought I would talk about this with you on a really wet and rainy day.

00:00:40 John Daub: How are you doing, everybody? You can see even behind me, it's beautiful in this area. I was here just about 36 hours ago looking at the cherry blossoms at night, which is my favorite time to see them with a light. You can see the contrast with the dark sky and the white blossoms. It's truly beautiful. This is a magical time to be in Japan. It seems like the entire world is here. If you walk around some of the tourist attractions, even the Skytree right now—if you look in the distance, you can only see half of it because it's engulfed in clouds.

00:01:21 John Daub: The simple answer is this: The cherry blossoms start at the middle of March. Each area is different in Japan. So you can see I brought this graph up quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. You're never really going to miss it if you come in the middle of March to the middle of April. You just got to travel a little bit in order to catch them. It's weather. It's sunshine. It's rain. A lot of things are going to impact whether or not you're going to see them.

00:02:02 John Daub: Today we are, but not for very long. Now this year in Tokyo, they started to bloom around the 14th, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. That's a little bit earlier. So the announcement means that they saw six or seven blossoms on an indicator tree. There's 47 prefectures that have that tree, and the majority of those trees are a little bit earlier. So I would say it's about two to three days after that you start to see them. So I don't consider it starting until the 18th in Tokyo. We started to see blossoms. They were at like 15%. Look at it. So beautiful during the day. See the pitter patter of rain.

00:02:50 John Daub: And you can tell how much longer they're going to be lasting by looking at the ground. And you can see if the blossoms are there or not. They are. So they're past 100%. We started on the 18th. Today is the 26th. So it's been eight days now the blossoms have been around in Tokyo. And we're past the peak. So I would say another five more days that we'll be able to see them. And then it's completely gone. There's a couple that hang on there. But in total, about two weeks. It's from the time that they first say it blooms, give it 48 hours. Then you start to see it in other trees. And then it's about two weeks after that the season is done. And it's abrupt because of what you see right now.

00:03:38 John Daub: And this year has been kind of weird in Tokyo. That doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to see them in Fukushima next week. You are. In fact, as you all know, Tokyo is not my favorite place to see the cherry blossoms. Let me show you why. I've queued up a little bit here. This is Tottori Prefecture. I took this in 2017 from the original Mavic Pro. Look at those cherry blossoms along the countryside, the river there. Oh, it's so stunning, isn't it? This is a reason why you get out of Tokyo. Look at the green, how lush it is. And then those white blossoms, the dark mountains in the background. You can walk under the canopy of the blossoms there. Almost nobody around.

00:04:39 John Daub: This is what I'm talking about when I say Tokyo is maybe a little bit overrated. It's possible. Probable. Definitely. And I'll let you like the parties. The blossoms there, they last about the same amount of time. The reason Tokyo is early is because of maybe the urban heat, maybe getting a little bit more sunshine. There's a lot of things that go into the cherry blossoms actually opening up. And the season's starting.

00:05:10 John Daub: So I said this year around the 18th we started to see the blossoms in Tokyo. Around the 22nd, 23rd, we started to get closer to 100%. And it really felt like you could go out and party underneath the cherry trees. You get a blue sheet, cherry blossom trees. You can picnic. So about the 22nd, we had good weather for a couple of days, and it's been raining for the last three. Now, we get to 100% two days ago, and you can see the blossoms now are starting to fall off. And they're landing on the ground. So that means we have about three days until most of them will be gone.

00:05:45 John Daub: Once it hits 100%, and this is another thing to consider. This is like looking into the macro of it all. Now, the tree next to it might bloom at a different rate. So that tree might be three days behind this tree or so. There's a boat going by here. One tree could be done and another tree could be. Also, the different varieties of cherry blossoms are quite important. The Somei Yoshino (a common cherry blossom variety) are the predominant ones, these white blossoms here. But you can already see the green popping through. And that's pretty significant, meaning the blossoms, if the wind doesn't get them, the rain doesn't get them, this will get it. The green leaves popping through. So no matter what, these blossoms don't stand a chance after two weeks.

00:06:45 John Daub: I got another video to show you here. My favorite place, again, probably anywhere countryside. I like Fukushima, though, and Aomori up there in Hirosaki. There's a place at Mount Fuji that I really like called Kawaguchiko. And they have amazing cherry blossoms there. And that won't be blooming for another week or so. So if you come to Tokyo and there's nothing there, get on a bus. Or rent a car and you can drive out there and you can see the cherry blossoms with Mount Fuji in the background. It's so beautiful. Don't count on seeing Mount Fuji. There's a good chance that it's going to be behind the clouds. You might get lucky.

00:07:42 John Daub: And then another place that I really like to go to is Yoshinoyama, Mount Yoshino. It's in Nara Prefecture. This has elevation. So you have the blossoms starting to bloom lower down. And then it follows up the mountain. And it's filled with, I think it was like 10,000 sakura (cherry blossom) trees or something like that. Or different varieties. So you got different colors of pink and white and violet and purple, lavender. Different shades. It's considered the number one spot in Japan for the cherry blossoms, Yoshinoyama. That's the sheer variety. That's the sheer numbers on a mountainside. It's like Sakura Mountain pretty much.

00:08:35 John Daub: But once the cherry blossoms bloom, you have about 10% to 65%. You get a little bit excited. Once it hits 65%, you have about three days. Once it hits 100%, then it holds on for about four days. And then you have three days after that. So basically the meat of the cherry blossom season is 10 days. You have 10 days pretty much. Three days after the start of the cherry blossoms. And then three days after the ending. There will be some lingering. But it's not quite the same. And once there's rain, wind, or the green stuff starts to pop through, it's game over.

00:09:19 John Daub: Sadly, the blossoms here are gone. Do you see the petals? All that remains are the holders, the center. But the white petals are gone. And that's a heartbreaking thing to see. It was either washed away because they were too heavy, blown away, or you're starting to see the green leaves pop through. At this stage, this particular tree, they're all bloomed. It is 100%. I'd say 105% now it's passed. Which is a shame. There could be another tree that's at a different bloomage. This one is one of the willow trees. And you can see it is past 100%. You're starting to get the green popping through right now. So this one is done. I'd give this one another three days before these blossoms all start to fall to the ground.

00:10:47 John Daub: We have the flurry, which is going to be pretty cool because the rain is supposed to stop on Tuesday. And that might be the best time to start to get the petal blizzards coming. And that's also a nice time to be under there. So I'd say Tuesday, the weather will be nicer. That might be the last day to get a cherry blossom party going. So if you're coming to Tokyo, you're coming and you're out on Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, you should be able to enjoy the cherry blossoms for just a little bit longer. It's so much better with blue skies.

00:11:29 John Daub: What is that? Like an army of—are they filming a movie or something? It looks like a squad of superheroes. Or evil villains hunting Aquaman. These would be his minions though. We're looking at another tree here. And yeah, this is 105% bloom. You can see the green is starting to come through here. This is going to boost out the blossoms. But it looks like the rain is going to get them first. Not a lot of the petals have gone to the ground though. This side gets more sunlight. So this side of the tree is 105%, and this side of the tree is 95%. Look at this. These are buds. They're still opening on this side. So I guess this side gets less sun, which is weird. But even within the same tree, you're going to have different rates of bloom. So this won't be full bloom until it'll pop out tomorrow for sure. And then you have three days left. So I'm saying Wednesday will be maybe the last day for full bloom to really enjoy it.

00:13:34 John Daub: So in total, to sum up, two weeks you got. From when they announce it, give it 48 hours. Then your two-week starts. Put the timer. Two weeks later, you're not really going to see much left. You'll see a little bit. There'll be people like me that are still trying to party. They'll be out there kind of trying to enjoy it. You know, denial. And then there'll be people like me who'll jump into a rental car and drive up to Fukushima and take the Shinkansen and go up to Aomori and try to live one or two more days amongst the beautiful cherry blossoms.

00:14:18 John Daub: Carrie writes in here, maybe stick to the golden triangle of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. Is that the golden triangle? I think if you're flying into Kansai, you never even have to leave Kansai to come to Tokyo. Tokyo is overrated. I say that because I live here, maybe. I see it every day. But if you fly into Kansai, I would highly recommend that you just stick to Kansai if it's your first trip to Japan. Focus in on Kyoto, Osaka. You don't need to come to Tokyo. Unless you really have this strong desire. Akihabara is kind of cool, I guess. But it depends what you're looking for. History, culture. That's all. Kansai is stacked. If you come to Tokyo, there's not too much around here. There's day trips to Hakone. There's day trips to Nikko, maybe. You go to Kamakura, perhaps. But there's an equivalent or better down in Kansai. The only thing that Tokyo has nearby is maybe Mount Fuji, and right now you can't see it. Nobody can.

00:15:31 John Daub: And Gary Johnson writes, in your Shinkansen, you can also see quite a bit of sakura flyby at like 300 kilometers per hour. Gary, you're going to need a really fast shutter speed to catch that. That's not going to be easy. But you can. On the other side there, there are not even blooms yet. So as many trees on the other side of this park are nearing finished, that one there, that whole branch hasn't bloomed yet. Isn't this weird? And this is all the same tree. Let's go down this hill, which is a dumb move because I could slip and fall. But I'd rather not walk around and waste time. So we have branch variations with the same tree. Check it out. That's crazy, right? Look at the one that's closest to you. It's like 80% bloomed. And then there's a place where it's 95%. And then there's the other side, which they're falling off. And the green is coming through. That is so weird.

00:17:02 John Daub: So we have here the temperature and the weather plays a big part. The amount of wind and rain after 100% plays a big part. And then you have just the different ages and variations of the trees. So there's lots of different reasons. And then so when everybody says, oh, I'm going to miss the cherry blossoms because I'm getting 100 emails a day about this. Oh, when are the cherry blossoms going to finish? The answer is like they don't. And they do. And just come. And if you miss it, get a Shinkansen pass and go somewhere. Stop being a baby. Just blossoms. I say that because I'm here and you're not. I completely understand.

00:17:57 John Daub: We're going to go underneath the river here. Look on the other side. The riversides are usually the best places to see the cherry blossoms. I'll be honest with you. I think it has to do with the fact that they just planted more along there and people live down near the river. But you'll find them all over the place. If you go to the whole clue, you could be hiking one day on a trail. Nobody's around. Boom. Cherry blossom tree. What? It's so beautiful. You just stop for a second. What are you doing out here? Just happened. Some samurai probably planted it 100 years ago. There's cherry blossom trees that are over a thousand years old around Japan. A lot of them have historical documentation to prove it. Or some scientists carbon dated it.

00:19:08 John Daub: You can't even see the Skytree. It's just the stalk. I showed this to you at night. I'm going to get a quick look, see, and then I got to go back to work. Tony P is here. What do you think the chances are Sakura will still be around when I land April 9th? Pretty good. In Tokyo, pretty bad. In Fukushima, pretty good. Does that answer your question? There might be some varieties of the cherry blossoms that are around. So, it just depends. I can't predict nature.

00:20:20 John Daub: Oh, thank you. It's the sakura season. Yeah, it is. This is a nice place. Thanks for saying hi. That's nice. He was literally like, I'm going to go back to work. I'm literally watching the broadcast right now. How cool is that? It's also in a lot of places around the world. I just think that Japan is insane with the blossoms in a good way. I mean, it's really everywhere. And that gives you a good feeling in spring when you see so many of them. Usually you'll see one or two dotting a place here. They planted thousands. There's places with a thousand cherry blossoms on a river in Japan. In fact, my Google map is just dotted with stars of places that I want to visit up in Fukushima rivers and they call them like Senbon-zakura (thousand cherry trees).

00:21:50 John Daub: Tokyo and Tony, this is good news for you. Tokyo is always too early. So it's really easy to predict that by April 1st or 2nd. There's a 5% chance it's not going to be any cherry blossoms around. And it's been like that for a long time. Just they come out a little bit too early. So I was here not too long ago and I did not see as many as I do now. But you are seeing on the ground a lot more here. So that's an indication that we don't have that much time. Ueno Park and the places there a little bit warmer. I think that they're going to be done by Wednesday. But there'll be places where you still might get it until Friday. As we're seeing, like each tree is different. There's some trees that aren't fully bloomed yet. And then here we've got the blossoms that are starting to fall off and you just see the stems on there. And if you look down on the ground, you start to see the petals and that's the indicator. And by Wednesday, this whole thing will be white with petals. And it's one of the most amazing sights. In Japan in spring, you have the ground covered in white. And that's such a cool sight to me.

00:24:16 John Daub: Let's take a look here. There's a karaoke boat. They're doing some singing in there. I can hear. You can see here the petals are starting to come off. The green is sprouting. It's sprouting out of this particular branch. So it'll be two or three days and the rest of the trees will follow suit. And then you got four days after that. So we're let's just say right now, I'd say this is the peak or a day after the peak, which is good because these rains are supposed to go on for one more day. There's a good chance they'll hang on a little bit longer. Then we've got the wind to talk about. Oh, that's one of those eating boats. They have okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancake). Teppanyaki grills in there. Very cool.

00:25:33 John Daub: We got a question from Mac here. Guys, is car rental an easy process for a foreigner in Japan? If you have an international driver's license, it is. If you are living in Japan, you cannot use an international driver's license after the first year. You have to get a Japanese driver's license. If the police catch you, you will be in deep doo doo or have to pay a pretty large fine. You have to get out of the car and you're going to have to get a taxi wherever they catch you. It's kind of a pain in the neck. So yeah, after a year, you can't have an international driver's license if you live in Japan. You got a grace period of a year and you have to change it over to a Japanese license or you have to go to school. But sometimes learning is kind of fun. You can make new friends at the school.

00:26:41 John Daub: If you haven't yet, you can grab a postcard. I just sent them out like 10 days ago now. They should have arrived by now. If you are part of the postcard club and I will happily send you one right away if you join the postcard club, it's cool. Next month might be a really prominent sakura tree. I'm not sure. I always try to find really nice landscape. Something you'd want to put on your refrigerator. Something that makes you think about Japan. It's got a neat nifty stamp on it. Always try to find the best, most colorful ones that tell the story. And some information about the location. So you can prepare for a trip over there. This one is the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route in Toyama Prefecture. It's a really neat place to go where the snow walls can be as high as 65 feet. 20 to 22 meters high. And that was this month's postcard.

00:28:17 John Daub: If it weren't raining, it would be a really nice day. But it is raining. You can see there's some sakura on the other side. Just one tree or two trees. Local residents see that tree just for two weeks looking like this. It's really pretty. Tony writes in here he's going to rent a car to get to Daikoku, the famous car meetup place in Tokyo. I am kind of nervous about driving. Tony, I'm talking directly to you, my friend. That is initiation by fire. To start to drive from Tokyo. My advice, if you're nervous, that's good. It's pretty hardcore to drive in Tokyo. I would rent a car outside of Tokyo maybe. And get like half a day driving. Especially if you're not used to driving on the other side of the road. And then maybe you're going to be okay. You shouldn't worry too much. But nerves are good. If you're nervous, that's a good sign. That means you'll be really focused on the road, right?

00:30:05 John Daub: Yes, Joy, I share that sentiment. Good luck, Tony. Make sure you know the rules. International driver's license is kind of a cheat because you don't know the rules. There's a handbook that you can buy on Amazon in the US. It's got a manga character on it, I believe. And it tells you the rules of the road or something. Get that. Just go over it once or twice so you're somewhat familiar with it. And then it's like riding a bicycle. But, you know, it's a car. We're starting to see the petals now on the ground. This is what I'm talking about. This area, this tree is a little bit earlier. Look at how many there are. Even the bush is getting litter all over it. Look at that. That tree is littering on the bush. The blossom snowfall. We're going to have the blossom blizzard coming soon.

00:31:51 John Daub: I'm going to walk down here past the torii gate (Shinto shrine gate) and show you some young trees before we cut off. My bicycles over in this direction. There's one of these weeping willow-looking sakura trees here. This one has passed 100%. The green is starting to pop on through some of the branches. It's going to look really nice, this tree, when it's green. But it's got that beautiful pink blossom. Rain is starting to come down a little bit stronger now. One chilled dude is here. Welcome. I'm really happy you guys are here. This is just sort of a, I got to take a break from the computer screen and get outside despite the rain.

00:33:09 John Daub: This is a cooler area. You can see it's shielded more. It's off of the river. Less sunshine. There's a building here. And this tree is not full. It's not fully bloomed. It's not even close. We have some trees that are 105%. They're way past it. The green is starting to come through. This one, they're still buds. So, again, even in Tokyo, you can have trees that are finished and trees that are just starting. Or trees that are like 85%, like this one. This one is going to be amazing on Monday. Tomorrow and the next day. Monday, Tuesday, this one is going to be so beautiful. I got to come back and get some shots of it. Just it's different trees and different branches have different times that they bloom. There's no consistency at all, is there?

00:35:15 John Daub: I was just here a couple of days ago. So, I don't need to show you the secret. I think you guys remember where that is. Just look at the last live stream. The midnight cherry blossom viewing. It's one of my favorite things to do at night. This is maybe my favorite sakura tree at night in this area, anyways. And you can see with the dark sky. This is just, I think, 36 hours ago. They've really come alive with a light at night. So, if you are staying in Japan, get out of your hotel room. After everyone's gone home and you have a special, your own special session to walk around the town and walk around the area. And look at the trees in a different light. Because it does make a big difference in taking photos. I like this one because of the stairs and the way it goes over the stairs. It's pretty. So, it's like the final scene from The Exorcist minus the cherry blossoms. Let's keep that to ourselves.

00:36:41 John Daub: All right, everybody. Thanks for watching. I hope that this was informational. I hope answering the question, not just when they're going to bloom, but how long they're going to bloom. When you see the date, give it two weeks. And then you can just assume that it's over. You're going to have to jump on the Shinkansen. And you're going to have to make your way north to see that. Or sometimes into the mountains to see them. Because around Golden Week, a month later. That's when Nagano's mountains start to bloom. Which is really interesting. Like around Golden Week. So, more than a month later. There's elevation. That's when they start to bloom. That's why people go hiking. And you can see the cherry blossoms from above. And it really is beautiful.

00:37:24 John Daub: Here's some blossoms over here before we cut off for the end of the stream. We could do that with the blossoms here. Wow. These are hanging on. You can tell. Look on the ground. There's very few white petals. So, I think it's going to be okay until tomorrow. Alright, everybody. See you later. Thanks for watching. From a very wet, rainy, chilly Tokyo. I'll see you again tomorrow.