More
Cherry Blossom
A cherry tree in full bloom with petals falling on the breeze, a way to put drifting petals on your own photo, and when the blossoms open across Japan.
F full screen · Esc to exit. The tree is drawn fresh from a random seed each time you press New tree. Reduce motion follows your system setting until you change it, and the animation pauses when the tab is hidden.
When do cherry blossoms bloom in Japan?
The Japan Meteorological Agency records the first bloom and full bloom of a sample cherry tree at its weather stations every year. First bloom is the first day with five or six flowers open; full bloom is the first day with about 80% of the buds open. The normals below are the 1991–2020 averages, next to what was observed in 2026.
| City | First bloom, normal | Full bloom, normal | 2026 first → full |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naha 那覇Taiwan cherry (hikanzakura) | Jan 16 | Feb 4 | Jan 18 → Feb 32 days late |
| Kagoshima 鹿児島 | Mar 26 | Apr 5 | Mar 27 → Apr 51 day late |
| Fukuoka 福岡 | Mar 22 | Mar 31 | Mar 24 → Apr 32 days late |
| Kochi 高知 | Mar 22 | Mar 30 | Mar 16 → Mar 316 days early |
| Hiroshima 広島 | Mar 25 | Apr 3 | Mar 19 → Mar 306 days early |
| Osaka 大阪 | Mar 27 | Apr 4 | Mar 26 → Apr 31 day early |
| Kyoto 京都 | Mar 26 | Apr 4 | Mar 23 → Mar 303 days early |
| Nagoya 名古屋 | Mar 24 | Apr 2 | Mar 17 → Mar 307 days early |
| Tokyo 東京 | Mar 24 | Mar 31 | Mar 19 → Mar 285 days early |
| Yokohama 横浜 | Mar 25 | Apr 1 | Mar 22 → Apr 13 days early |
| Kanazawa 金沢 | Apr 3 | Apr 8 | Mar 29 → Apr 35 days early |
| Niigata 新潟 | Apr 8 | Apr 13 | Mar 31 → Apr 38 days early |
| Sendai 仙台 | Apr 8 | Apr 13 | Mar 31 → Apr 48 days early |
| Nagano 長野 | Apr 11 | Apr 16 | Mar 31 → Apr 611 days early |
| Aomori 青森 | Apr 22 | Apr 26 | Apr 13 → Apr 169 days early |
| Hakodate 函館 | Apr 28 | May 2 | Apr 18 → Apr 2010 days early |
| Sapporo 札幌 | May 1 | May 6 | Apr 18 → Apr 2413 days early |
| Kushiro 釧路Sargent cherry (ezoyamazakura) | May 16 | May 19 | May 3 → May 613 days early |
- In a normal year, Somei-yoshino first blooms in late March from Kyushu to Kanto, reaches Hokuriku and southern Tohoku around April 10 and the east and north of Hokkaido in mid-May. Taiwan cherries in Okinawa and Amami start in mid-January.
- In these normals, full bloom comes 4–10 days after first bloom for Somei-yoshino, faster in the north where spring warms quickly.
- Dates move with the weather: in 2026 most stations bloomed earlier than normal, some by more than ten days. Check the JMA’s live observations or a current forecast before planning a trip.
Source: Japan Meteorological Agency (気象庁), cherry blossom observations — first bloom and full bloom dates, 2021–2026 and 1991–2020 normals, and the observation method. Somei-yoshino unless noted. The scene and petals on this page are drawn by code, not photographs.
Works in your browser. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The photo is opened and drawn in your browser, and the GIF is encoded on your device with the open-source gifenc library. Nothing is sent to a server, so it also works offline once the page has loaded.
Why does the GIF loop so smoothly?
Every petal in the GIF follows a path that returns to its exact starting position, angle and tilt after one loop of 3.2 seconds, and petals that leave one edge re-enter from the opposite side outside the frame. The first and last frames therefore join up without a jump. The GIF has 40 frames at 12.5 frames per second.
Why do the colours in my GIF look slightly banded?
The GIF format can hold at most 256 colours per image, so smooth gradients such as a clear sky are reduced to fewer shades. Choosing the smaller GIF size keeps the file light; for a single high-quality picture, use Save still (PNG) instead.
What do first bloom and full bloom mean?
They are the Japan Meteorological Agency’s definitions for its sample trees. First bloom (kaika) is the first day with five or six or more flowers open on the station’s sample tree. Full bloom (mankai) is the first day with about 80 percent or more of the buds open. Most stations observe the Somei-yoshino cherry; Okinawa uses the Taiwan cherry and eastern Hokkaido the Sargent cherry.
When is cherry blossom season in Japan?
In a normal year the Taiwan cherries of Okinawa open in mid-January. The Somei-yoshino first bloom arrives in late March from Kyushu to the Kanto region around Tokyo, reaches Hokuriku and southern Tohoku around April 10, and gets to eastern and northern Hokkaido in mid-May. Each year differs by days or even weeks, so check a current forecast before you travel.
Is the tree a photo?
No. The tree is grown by a small program each time: a trunk splits again and again into thinner branches, and clusters of blossom are placed at the twig tips. Press New tree for a different one. The petals are drawn as notched sakura petal shapes that tumble, sway and drift with the wind you set.
About this tool
This page is a small, quiet cherry blossom viewing spot. A cherry tree in full bloom stands on a hillside while petals slip off its crown and ride the breeze, turning and tumbling as real sakura petals do before settling on the grass. You can switch between a bright spring day, a pink dusk and a night scene with paper lanterns in the spirit of yozakura, the Japanese custom of viewing blossoms after dark, and watch it full screen as a relaxing background.
Everything is drawn by code, not taken from photographs. The tree is grown by recursive branching from a random seed, so New tree gives you a different shape each time, and the wind slider changes both the direction and the strength of the breeze with natural gusts. The animation adapts to your screen’s pixel density for sharp edges, pauses when the tab is hidden or scrolled away, and shows a still picture if your device asks for reduced motion.
Petals on your photo adds falling cherry petals to any picture you choose and turns it into a seamlessly looping animated GIF, ready to share. You can pick how many petals fall, how large they are, whether a breeze carries them sideways, and the GIF size. The photo is processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded; a still PNG is available too.
For planning a real hanami, the bloom table lists the Japan Meteorological Agency’s 1991–2020 normal dates for first bloom and full bloom in 18 cities from Naha to Kushiro, with the dates observed in 2026 and how far each was from normal. In these normals the Somei-yoshino reaches full bloom 4 to 10 days after it first opens, and in 2026 most stations bloomed earlier than normal.