Funaoka Castle Park on the hill and statue of the Goddess of Peace. The hill itself has more than 1000 cherry trees (Photo: Takako Sakamoto)

Shibata Sakura Festa - Riverbank

Great view of 1000 cherry trees along Shiroishi River

Takako Sakamoto   - 1 min read

Every year in cherry blossom season, they hold the 'Shibata Sakura Festival' in Shibata town in Miyagi prefecture. Surprisingly, in this town you can see beautiful cherry trees EVERYWHERE, and in my opinion each place is good enough to be 'one of the best places' to appreciate cherry trees. However, two of the most prominent places for Sakura viewing in Shibata town would be the Funaoka Castle Park on the hilltop and the endless line of cherry trees which continues for as long as 8 km along Shiroishi River. This is called, '1000 cherry trees at a glance' and is one of the top 100 places noted for cherry blossom viewing in Japan.

Takako Sakamoto

Takako Sakamoto @takako.sakamoto

I was born in and grew up in Tokushima prefecture, and have lived in many places since then: Nishinomiya, Kyoto, Nara, Mie, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Fukuoka and Fukui. I am currently living in Yokohama City. All the places I lived, all the places I visited, I have loved dearly. The histor...