You don’t have to wait for spring to see this special kind of sakura.

Cherry blossoms, as just about everyone knows, are a symbol of spring in Japan. The exact timing of their arrival depends on which part of the country you’re talking about and that year’s specific weather patterns, but the sakura start to bloom between late March and early May, right, as shown once again in the latest cherry blossom forecasts.

But while all of that is true, it’s true specifically for the Somei Yoshino, the most common variety of cherry blossom tree. Japan has other kinds of cherry blossoms too, though, and for one of them, the Kawazu sakura/Kawazuzakura, cherry blossom season is starting this week.

The most famous place for Kawazuzakura, fittingly, is the town of Kawazu, part of Kamo District in Shizuoka Prefecture. This coastal town, as seen in the video above, has a riverside road called Nanohana Road with a canopy of cherry blossom boughs arching over it, and they’re predicted to come into bloom by the end of this week, according to the latest report from Japanese meteorological organization Weathernews, which has released a Kawazuzakura forecast map.

The map can be a little hard to visually process at first, since the ocean off the southern coast of Japan is shown in pink, but it contains the following dates and places.

● Kawazuzakura Namiki Nanohana Road (河津桜並木　菜の花ロード)
Kawazu, Shizuoka Prefecture
Start of blooming: February 6
Full bloom: February 22
● Todaiyama (東大山)
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture
Start of blooming: February 21
Full bloom: March 1
● Nishihirahatake Park (西平畑公園)
Matsuda, Kanagawa Prefecture
Start of blooming: January 30
Full bloom: February 17
● Oi Yume no Sato (おおいゆめの里)
Oi, Kanagawa Prefecture
Start of blooming: February 6
Full bloom: February 22

▼ Kawazuzakura Namiki Nanohana Road

Also in Shizuoka, the Todaiyama area of the city of Hamamatsu includes a section of the Hanakawa River lined with more than 400 Kawazuzakura trees. As in many places, the bloom at about the same time as the bushes of yellow flowers called nanohana, and the contrast between the pink and yellow petals, especially on a sunny day with a clear blue sky as a backdrop, makes for a striking combination.

▼ Todaiyama Kawazuzakura

It’s about two and a half hours by train from downtown Tokyo to Kawazu or Hamamatsu, so they’re doable as day trips, despite being two prefecture over from Japan’s capital. You can also see the early-arrival cherry blossoms in Tokyo’s southern neighbor, Kanagawa Prefecture, as two parts of the Ashigarakami District, the towns of Matsuda and Oi, also have good Kawazuzakura spots, Matsuda’s Nishihirahatake Park…

…and Oi’s Oi Yume no Sato park.

Both of the Kanagawa locations also boast lines of sight to Mt. Fuji, and with winter often offering the clearest views of the mountain that’s so often hidden in clouds in other seasons, if luck is on your side you might get to see the cherry blossoms, nanohana, and Fuji all at once, and they’re both accessible from Tokyo in about two hours.

Related: Nishihirahatake Park official website, Oi Yume no Sato official website
Source: Weathernews
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Weathernews
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