Mocha Pinku
- Feb 25
- 3 min read

Matsuda Cherry Blossom Festival

in Matsudamachi, Kanagawa

The Matsuda Cherry Blossom Festival is held annually in February through early March to celebrate the 360 kawazuzakura trees that bloom in Nishihirabatake Park in Matsuda, Kanagawa. The Matsuda Cherry Blossom Festival also features nanohana or rapeseed flowers throughout the park, and on a clear day, you can even see Mount Fuji. The cherry blossoms in Matsuda are a type of early-blooming cherry blossom that blooms in Febuary through March called Kawazuzakura. Their flowers are larger and a deeper pink than the regular variety of cherry blossoms. Kawazuzakura were first discovered in Kawazu, Shizuoka, where they also hold the biggest Kawazuzakura festival.

My Experience

We visited the park in the last weekend of February and luckily the flowers were still in bloom! There were also a lot of petals falling from the trees and on the ground, which made the scenery even more beautiful. We arrived at Shin-Matsuda station around 2:30 in the afternoon. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there from Tokyo. The entrance to the park is about a 15 - 20 minute walk to the station. There was a small line to buy tickets (300 JPY each), and to enter the park, but we only waited less than like 15 minutes in each line.

There is one line to enter and leave the park, which consists of stairs and a winding trail up the mountain. Most of path isn't paved so you do sometimes need to be careful where you step. When we went, it was quite crowded, so it was just a slow moving single file line up the hill. The view is really pretty though because you are walking through the cherry blossom trees and they have patches of nanohana along the way. I would say it takes maybe about 30 minutes to get to the top of the hill. I believe they also have a bus service that can take you directly to the top of the hill from the JR Matsuda station.

At the top of the hill there are a couple photo spots, the pink swing and the deck, where you can line up for photos. I will say that the line for the photos on the deck was so long, so be prepared to wait! There are also places to sit and food trucks. They even had live music playing! The view from the top is absolutely beautiful! You can see the entire city and even the ocean in the distance. On clear days, you can also see Mount Fuji, but unfortunately, there were too many clouds the day we went. There are really nice areas to take pictures of the fields of nanohana and kawazuzakura at the top, so I highly recommend making the trek up the hill.

Overall the view and the scenery were so beautiful, so I highly recommend visiting when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. They also have a famous slide through the cherry blossoms, but unfortunately, it was broken when we went. It's one of the closer areas to Tokyo where you can see so many kawazuzakura trees in February!