Sakura Season By Bike! 🌸 Japan Cycling Tour to my Favorite Hanami Spots in Kanazawa 金沢の桜

Sakura Season By Bike! 🌸 Japan Cycling Tour to my Favorite Hanami Spots in Kanazawa 金沢の桜

[Music] today I’m going to take you on a bike ride so we can see all of my favorite cherry blossom spots in kazawa today’s route is a nearly 40 m loop around the kazawa area but we’ll go up the ASO River to tatsuyama park across to the Sai River and Back to the Sea of Japan with several different CH Blossom spots along the way if you just want to skip straight to each place in the video I have the main cherry blossom spots time stamped below this is the suruga Oka Ginga a small Shrine in town surrounded by beautiful cherry trees I started my cycling route in uchata which is a town on the Sea of Japan coast just outside the capital of kazawa from here I Rod under the walking paths and toward the coast still in the town of uchata this road goes by the high school and runs parallel to the Noto satama Expressway with some huge cherry trees lining aside [Music] I turned across Sunset bridge and descended down to the kahoku Lagoon to begin riding into Ishikawa prefecture’s capital city of kazawa the Hoku rku railroad line on my left runs from uchata to Kwa [Music] station I crossed it here to ride parallel to it on the other side along the ASO [Music] River this River the Asawa has a bike path along it and is the second spot on this cherry blossom Bike Tour there are a few different kinds of cherry trees on this River with both white and pink blooms it’s usually less crowded than the sa river that we’ll ride along later probably because there’s less Green Space to picnic on but it’s a great River path you can follow the Asawa almost all the way to kazawa train station but I turned away from the station to head towards utsuyama park there are a few ways to climb up to this Park area and I think every road has cherry trees along it it’s a great Park to get away from the traffic of downtown without actually going very far from the city [Music] [Music] from the top 141 M up there are really pretty views down to the buildings below and on a clear day you can even see out to uchata and the ocean I went up one side of Utama and down the other so I could loop around to a couple of kazawa tea districts this is higashi Chaya the largest of kazawa 3 tea districts with some beautiful historical streets there aren’t actually many cherry trees right here but if you weave through the streets and make your way back to utatsu shine you’ll find some beautiful trees there this is the same Shrine that I was visiting a few months ago in a video for setsubun in February from here we’ll ride over to rejoin the ASO River and see another tea District kway Machi Chaya this is a small tea District but it faces the river I rode down to the bridge so that I could ride back on the other side [Music] on the left here is one of kazawa public [Music] [Music] baths the street is probably my favorite spot in the whole city kanazawa gets a lot of rain but it can be very atmospheric so here’s what the Street’s cherry trees look like during a rainy evening [Music] [Applause] [Applause] back on my route I’m riding up the ASO River to climb utsuyama again [Music] this is the top which has some great picnic [Music] spots this time when we descend itatama will be on the south side of the city and rejoin the river further Upstream [Music] there are so many trees along the whole river path no matter which section you ride along cherry blossoms are a symbol of rebirth after winter and since the end of March is also the new fiscal year and the start of a new school year in April the whole season is very representative of a new start so far we’ve just been riding along the ASO River but kazawa has two main rivers that go along either side of the main downtown area here we’ll cross over and start following the saigh river back towards downtown this river is larger and also has a path on either side it’s a popular spot for picnics because it has so much Green Space to spread out on and enjoy Hanami means flower viewing but usually people only use that word when they’re talking about viewing cherry blossoms it’s a popular activity in the spring to have Hanami picnics where you enjoy the transient beauty of the flowering Sakura or cherry blossoms with friends family or even co-workers the first offici official Hanami celebration was said to have been held by the 52nd Emperor Emperor Saga in Kyo shinin Garden it was more of an aristocratic thing then when only wealthy merchants and Samurai could afford to have trees planted on their properties it wasn’t until later when cherry trees were planted along rivers and in public places that the greater public could also enjoy picnicking under the seasonal blooms these days Sakura flowers aren’t just symbolic they’re a huge part of the econom and tourism money the Japan times said that this year 2024 the economic impact of Hanami is estimated to be around 1.14 trillion yen or $7.7 billion almost twice as much as last year’s 66 billion yen this is the impact of people traveling to see the flowers as well as soccer themed food drinks and souvenirs they get sold this time of year I couldn’t get over how beautiful the blooms were on this ride this was April 11th 2024 and was actually 2 weeks later than the original forecast for the peak cherry blossoms last year they were at Peak at the very end of March but we had a late cold snap that delayed the buds from blooming a few days earlier than this ride on the 7th Zeb and I spent a weekend afternoon having a picnic here in the Sawa it’s perfect oh what a nice day YY s here [Music] yeah oh my goodness picnics are a huge part of the cherry blossom season and some people even prefer the food to the flowers there’s a proverb that pokes fun at that which says dumplings Over Flowers or hanayori Dango which means kind of to prefer substance over style or function over Aesthetics the real priorities for some cherry blossom viewers are the food and drinks at a Hanami party rather than actually viewing the flowers themselves but I can’t really blame them sometimes we had a nice Feast ourselves picking up some Sashimi baked goods salad and chips and the basement floor of the imza downtown across from the omo market we had a pretty modest setup compared to some people who will bring entire grills and coolers to cook and hang out all afternoon it’s a really fun atmosphere [Music] I didn’t go into the city on my cycling route but kazawa Castle is another great place to see cherry trees and it’s not too far from the Sai River [Music] kazawa castle and K Rin Garden just across the street are both great places to see cherry blossoms but you do have to leave the bikes behind if you want to go inside either area [Music] my cycling route followed the Sai River all the way down to the end of the coast and much like the ASA River there were pretty cherry trees and Bloom the whole way thanks so much for joining me on this ride and I hope you can see lots of pretty flowers yourself this spring you can find this cycling route linked below see you in the next video [Music]

Sakura season has come to Japan, and I made a cycling route that visits all 7 of my favorite cherry blossom spots in Kanazawa! Join me on a ride through the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, admire the sakura during peak week, and enjoy a hanami picnic with us on the Saigawa. 🌸

Jump to…
0:31 – Tsurugaoka Jinja, a shrine in Uchinada town – 内灘町
1:42 – Asano River – 浅野川
2:34 – Utatsuyama Park – 卯辰山公園
3:38 – Utatsu Shrine – 宇多須神社
4:53 – Kazuemachi Chaya – 主計町茶屋街
7:00 – Sai River – 犀川
8:52 – Our Hanami Picnic!
10:30 – Kanazawa Castle – 金沢城

My route and ride data: https://www.strava.com/activities/11154065158

🎙️ Want to keep up with the rest of our adventures? We have a podcast! : https://www.ramblingramsbothams.com

More about the places I biked through:
Uchinada Town: https://uchinadakankou.com/Uchinada town map: https://uchinadakankou.com/wp-content/themes/toki-child/map/map_english.pdf
Saigawa (Sai River) river path: https://greatruns.com/kanazawa-japan-seibu-ryokuchi-park-sai-river-path/
Kazuemachi Chaya Tea District: https://visitkanazawa.jp/en/attractions/detail_10048.html
Kanazawa Castle: https://www.pref.ishikawa.jp/siro-niwa/kanazawajou/e/
Kenrokuen Garden: https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/1399/
More about Kanazawa: https://www.ishikawatravel.jp/en/destinations/kanazawa/

🇯🇵 More videos about Japan here:
Temple Ride & Mountain Cherry Blossoms: https://youtu.be/VK2Gh9WK7HE
Gravel Cycling in Wakayama Prefecture: https://youtu.be/weifAuHdJ0Q
Sapporo Snow Festival: https://youtu.be/8A7myyazu_o
Week-long Bike Tour Kanazawa to Matsumoto: https://youtu.be/OOgtL6N20mY

#kanazawa #saigawa #cycling #lifeinjapan #金沢市観光 #japanlife #金沢市 #金沢 #石川県観光 #石川県 #lifeabroad #cherryblossoms #sakura #花見#hanami #さくら #金沢の桜 #桜 #sakuraseason #japantravel #biketour #cyclingjapan