Travel by photos – Catching Sakura full bloom at Fort Goryokaku, Hakodate

Cherry Blossom, or better known as Sakura in Japan, is really a big hit to all Japanese and foreign visitors as during its blooming season in Spring every year, all parks planted with Cherry Blossom trees are always full of people doing Hanami (Flower viewing) as well as photo shooting. Local people loves to lay on sit a blue mat to have picnic under the white pinky flowers while enjoying the scens. It is normal and in fact another special scene to see those cherry blossom parks in Japan rendered with blue colour mats on grass below and white colour Sakura on trees above.

Part of the reasons why Cherry Blossom blooming so attractive is its short flowering period of merely 1 to 2 weeks from the first opening of its bulbs until the falling off of its petals. It also marks the arrival of Spring. Each year, weather forecast in Japan will also forecast the Sakura first opening time (or Sakura blooming head) in various parts of Japan. Japan is an island nation stretching thousands of KM from South to North so different parts of the nation would have different climate and temperature at the same time.

One of my main reasons to visit Japan in late April is to catch the full bloom of Cherry Blossom in Hokkaido! Fort Goryokaku (五稜郭) in Hakodate is one of the best place to experience the Hanami in Hokkaido, Japan. After a thorough research on the Cherry Blossom full bloom trail record, we managed to catch its full bloom at Fort Goryokaku on the 7th May 2012! Hooray!

The star shaped Goryokaku park was actually a military fortress during the Edo and Meiji Period in 17th to 18th century until it turned into a public park and planted with over thousand Cherry Blossom trees after losing its significance militarily. I think it was a great idea as the park now features a beautiful island park at the centre and is being surrounded by man-made river, a feature always seen in a fortress.

Fort Goryokaku is 15 minutes away from the Hakodate central JR train station by street tram, the only local public rail transport in Hakodate. Just take any tram that heading for Yunokawa(湯の川) direction and get off at Goryōkaku-kōen-mae (五稜郭公園前) stop. The park is just 10 minutes walk away, or 410m. The walk to Goryokaku is nothing less than fascinating as you will be greeted by Cherry Blossom trees along the way.

Once we entered the park, I was immediately stunned by those Cherry Blossoms that appeared everywhere!

It was a perfect morning to visit the park as most of the Cherry Blossom flowers have reached full bloom on the day itself.

This was how fully opened Cherry Blossom filled up the whole frame of the photo and covered the sky above to make it a splendid view from below if you are sitting underneath them.

Youngsters were having hanami session and picnicking under the sakura.

An upclose shot of a full bloom branch of Cherry Blossom. When it is fully opened, around 10 flowers will grow from each bulb.

It rained early in the morning and was cloudy when we reached the park. However, we received a bit of bright sunshine at noon. These 2 weather conditions appeared concurrently in the park so you can see 2 different moods of images here under 2 different natural sun lighting.

Which one would you prefer? Under the cloudy weather…

… or with some sunshine.

Below are some random captures of the surrounding features within the park.

A wooden shed with some crawling Cherry Blossom variants, which are still not flowering yet.

I saw a Japanese kept shooting photos at this angle, so I followed him. What do you think?

The designer of the current Fort Goryokaku, who had successfully transformed it from a military fortress to a public park.

This is the reconstruction of the magistrate office which was demolished during the Meiji period. Not it serves as a museum of the park.

And this empty piece of land was the original site for residential and shop lots.

At the centre of the central island, it stood a signboard indicating directions to various parts of the garden.

Don’t just shoot the flowers, take a self portrait and frame it so people knows you were there in person! Haha 🙂

Sunshine came across briefly and Cherry Blossom looked really awesome!

Cherry Blossom blooming is truly a magnificent scene to be viewed in person. I was totally obsessed by its beauty! Did them make you tempted to plan a trip to Japan next Spring? 🙂

To actually view the star shape and overview of the park, one can pay ¥840 to go up to the observation deck of Goryokaku Tower. Unfortunately I did not go up there which I regretted. This photo shows the ground floor lobby of the tower. A souvenir shop is at the other side. Try some of the local Hokkaido biscuits and sweets which are really nice and not available in any other Japanese cities.

View other exciting photos of Cherry Blossom in the above slideshow. All the above photos was taken with my beloved Nikon D7000 coupled with Nikkor 10-24mm Ultra Wide Angle lens. To view then in full size, just click the slideshow above to access to my Flickr Photostream.

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What’s my verdict?

• Attractiveness: Excellent    √ √ √ √ √
• Features to explore: Good √ √ √ √
• Photo Opportunity: Excellent √ √ √ √ √
• Accessability: Good √ √ √ √ (10 minutes walk from tram station)
  
• Value for money: Excellent √ √ √ √ √ (Free to enter park)
  

• Overall Travel Score : 92%

• Verdict: Need we say more? This is one of the best spots to see Cherry Blossom blooming with over thousand of sakura trees planted in the park! And it’s free! The only downside of it is you might be too obsessed by the beauty of Cherry Blossom until you lost sight of your travel mates! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog