Spring in Japan is coming: 5 reasons to be excited for 2024 ✨ (while on a snowy Kanazawa bike ride!)
It’s late January, and I’m on the Saigawa River by Kanazawa. Today I thought I would take you with me on a little exploration to see how the roads are doing after our most recent snow. And also, get excited about Spring!
So a couple days before this ride, we’d actually had a huge snow storm. It was really beautiful and fun to walk around under the fluffy snowflakes. Ishikawa Prefecture gets a lot of precipitation, which means we enjoy a ton of snow in the winter!
However, I’ve been getting more and more excited for spring lately – and this week I started dreaming about spring fuubutsushi (風物詩) or the things and feelings that evoke memories & anticipation for a particular season. On this ride, we’ll navigate some melting snow and seasonal changes,
And I’ll tell you about five features of the spring season that I’m most looking forward to. The snow on the roads in Uchinada melted really quickly actually, so I figured that I would ride towards Kanazawa and see how clear the roads were in that direction.
Where I started my ride, here on the Kanazawa port, was actually really sunny and free of snow. If you take a cruise or a ferry from Kanazawa, you’ll be leaving from this cruise terminal. It’s a cool building with the roof built to look
Like a wave. I’ve actually never been on a boat out of Kanazawa, but this was historically a really important stop on the trading route from Osaka to Hokkaido. The small port town of Ono, just next door, is known for it’s many soy sauce manufacturers. Just in this small area outside Kanazawa,
There are over 40 companies still making and selling small-batch soy sauce. From Ono I continued along the coast to get to the Saigawa river path, a paved road for biking and walking that you can take all the way into the heart of downtown Kanazawa.
It wasn’t long before I started seeing traces of snow that hadn’t melted, and then so much snow covering the path that I had to change plans and ride on the road! Since the road had been plowed, I could continue my ride without a problem – but
I wasn’t sure how clear the smaller roads surrounding Kanazawa would be. So, I guess maybe the most obvious thing that I’m looking forward to is the change in the weather. So, this brings me to the first thing that I’m looking forward to with spring – warmer weather means clear roads for bike trips.
It might not be the case for everyone, but for me and Zeb, Spring means the return of weekend bike trips and long rides. Last year we took our first post-winter bike trip to Fukui Prefecture in March. The new shinkansen extension is opening in March of this year actually,
So maybe we’ll take a trip there again and see the new train stations or the dinosaur museum. I got off the main road to explore some of the neighborhood streets just off the Saigawa river. The roads were definitely more slushy here.
This temple had put hats on their Jizo statues, which are typically buddhist guardians for children and travelers. The red color is supposed to ward off evil, and I’ve also been told that since the statues are protectors, you show your appreciation
By caring for them in return, keeping them dressed and warm in their red hats and bibs. Look at the Saigawa! The blue sky and the river with the white snow. Winter is pretty even though it’s not great for biking.
I got a bunch of snow inside my shoe covers when I had to walk my bike in the slushiest bits, so I had to stop and shake all of that out. Another thing that I’m really excited about is in the Spring,
This whole river is lined cherry trees and it’s so beautiful. And they peak around the end of March, like maybe the end of March, very beginning of April. It’s short and it’s really beautiful. For my second reason, cherry blossoms are a classic marker of spring, and probably the
Most recognizable fuubutsushi, or feature of this season. Especially here along the Saigawa, there are beautiful trees blooming along the whole river path. Speaking of sakura, or cherry blossoms, I want to tell you about the cherry blossom
Campaign that Klook is currently running! Today’s video is sponsored by Klook, which is an experiences booking platform. You can use them to book not only hotels and transportation, but also things like SIM cards, tickets for experiences or city passes. Klook has started becoming really popular for travel in Asia,
So if you’re traveling to Japan this spring, you should definitely check them out. From now until March 10th, Klook is offering 15% off over 180 cherry blossom tours and events around the country! Using a booking platform like Klook can be really helpful,
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I crossed the Saigawa again and continued along it on the other side. This part of the road has a ton of cherry trees too. Renting a bike to ride along the river would be a really fun thing to do if you visit kanazawa in the spring.
I was starting to feel snackish, so I stopped at a conbini to get something to eat. I noticed that there were already lots of strawberry flavored treats for sale! I ended up getting a strawberry tart. You can see I’m still proudly wearing my Appalachian State kit from my collegiate
Cycling days – it’s old and bulky but it brings back good memories. Also this toddler kept waving at me from her car, so that’s who I was waving back at. But, this strawberry tart made me think of my third reason for spring excitement – strawberry picking!
Last spring some friends and I traveled up the Noto Peninsula to pick strawberries in Noto – I’m currently recording this in early 2024 after a pretty severe earthquake caused significant destruction in that area. So right now you shouldn’t visit that part of Ishikawa while repair efforts are ongoing.
However, the rest of the prefecture would greatly benefit from tourism money, and you can donate directly to the prefecture’s earthquake relief fund. In future years though when that area of Ishikawa can handle tourists again, I would highly recommend
Going to the Noto area. You can even pick strawberries there if you visit in the spring! Another really exciting thing to look forward to in the spring is of course the flowers start blooming, and Tonami, in Toyama Prefecture,
Which isn’t very far from us here in the Kanazawa area, has a really cool tulip festival. My 4th reason to be excited for spring in Japan is tulips! Cherry blossoms seem to get all the attention, and with good reason, but there are actually some really
Pretty tulips that bloom in the spring here, a little later than sakura season! Last year we went to Tonami, in Toyama Prefecture, to visit the annual Tonami Tulip Festival! In 2024 this festival will be April 23rd to May 5th,
So even if you miss the cherry blossoms, you can still see tulips! Since the roads were so snowy in Kanazawa, I figured that my original plan to ride towards Tsurugi would be too risky. Instead,
I decided to ride out to the foothills of the mountains in the outskirts of Kanazawa, and then cross over to the Asanogawa river to ride along that back to Uchinada. I was heading back down into the main part of Kanazawa at this point,
But it was crazy to me how much more snow was here compared to where I had started in Uchinada! Unfortunately the Asanogawa bike path was not easily rideable from here, since it hadn’t been plowed. But the road wasn’t too bad. I wanted to see how clear the roads up to Utatsuyama Park were,
And I was pleasantly surprised! Utatsuyama is a park just outside downtown Kanazawa, and the 141 meter summit looks down onto the city and beyond to the Kahoku Lagoon and the Sea of Japan on clear days. I’m climbing up Utatsuyama now. It’s really nice that the city plowed the road already.
There was a little bit of rain here, but luckily it was light and it cleared up pretty quickly. In fact, rain reminds me of the 5th and final reason I’m excited for spring: the F1 race at Suzuka Circuit!
This is because the year we went was incredibly rainy, but still a ton of fun. We went in October of 2022, but since then, the race has been moved to the spring, and it happens in April now. The F1 race isn’t really an example of fuubutsushi, but it is still something
That happens in spring that I’m excited for. The track was recently renewed in a 5 year contract, so Suzuka Circuit will be part of the F1 race calendar until at least 2029! We don’t have plans to go this year but I’d love to go again
In the future – hopefully for a sunnier weekend! I finished my ride by biking through Kazuemachi-chaya, one of Kanzawa’s three historic tea districts. I guess tea would be another bonus reason to look forward to the spring, since that’s the
Season for ichibancha, the first tea harvest, when some of the highest quality green tea is picked. This might not be the biggest of the three tea districts, but it’s still my favorite, and it’s definitely beautiful in all four seasons. This one section of the path was just a little rough though.
So even though I’ve been telling you all the reasons why I’m excited for Spring, there is a lot of beauty in winter here, and in all the seasons in Japan. And you’ll hear that all the time if you spend any time in Japan, about how Japan has four seasons, and sometimes I
Joke about it cause a lot of countries have four seasons, but there is something special about how much Japan loves each of the four seasons and how much emphasis they put on all the beauty and the small characteristics that make each season stand out. So, no matter when you come to Japan,
It’s gonna be beautiful. And I’m looking forward to Spring, but I’m also gonna enjoy the rest of what Winter has to offer. So thanks for coming with me on this ride and I’ll see you next time!
Cycling in Japan can be challenging during the west coast’s snowy winters! Today I’m riding through Kanazawa (金沢), navigating melting snow, and sharing five features of the spring season that I’m most looking forward to in 2024.
Did you know there’s a word in Japanese to describe the things that evoke memories and nostalgia for a particular season? These can be feelings, scents, or items that bring anticipation for the seasonal change – called “fuubutsushi” 風物詩 (ふうぶつし).
Now that Setsubun has come and gone, it’s technically “spring” here – and I’m so excited!
This video is sponsored by Klook, an experiences booking platform! Coming to Japan this spring during sakura season? From now until March 10, @klooktravel is offering 15% off over 180 cherry blossom tours and events around Japan!
➡️ You can use my code: ANNIE&EVERYWHERE15 to get 15% off through Klook:
https://www.klook.com/en-US/tetris/promo/cherryblossom/
🚲 Today’s Route & Ride Details: https://www.strava.com/activities/10637061023
🎙️ Want to keep up with the rest of our adventures? We have a podcast! : https://www.ramblingramsbothams.com
Links for more info:
Cherry blossom forecast calendar: https://n-kishou.com/corp/news-contents/sakura/?lang=en
English Details for Ishikawa’s Earthquake Relief Fund: https://www.ishikawatravel.jp/en/news/disaster-relief-donations-for-the-noto-peninsula-earthquake-of-2024/
Tonami Tulip Fair 2024: https://fair.tulipfair.or.jp/en/
F1 at Suzuka Circuit: https://www.suzukacircuit.jp/eng/f1/
Jump to:
0:56 – Today’s Bike Route
2:15 – Reason 1
3:48 – Reason 2
5:43 – Reason 3
6:34 – Reason 4
8:34 – Reason 5
9:22 – Bonus
🇯🇵 More videos about Japan here:
Bike Tour to Fukui: https://youtu.be/zZJ0jJLVePY
Kanazawa cherry blossom tour on a mamachari bike: https://youtu.be/Xjn89S64iXE
Noto Peninsula Cycling Tour: https://youtu.be/AtgQuM1PLaI
Watching the F1 Race: https://youtu.be/y6IfZwFB63s
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