This year's Higashimatsuyama Cherry Blossom Festival

Higashimatsuyama is a city in (geographically) central Saitama Prefecture. It has a higher concentration of international residents, relative to other cities in the prefecture. Each year during the period of the flowering of the main cherry blossom variety, Somei Yoshino, the city has a cherry blossom festival. However, unlike other larger cherry blossom festivals, they don't have food trucks or entertainment. Its mainly just cherry blossom light up.

For two weeks they light up the cherry blossoms in two small parks in the city: Shimonuma Park and Kaminuma Park. (Both linked to review pages on City cost with another photo of each in cherry blossom season in a previous year). Kaminuma Park was chosen by Japan Post for their top 50 scenic cherry blossom list in the past. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't put it in the top 50 for Japan for daytime viewing. But it is particularly beautiful at night, thanks to the pond. The cherry blossoms look stunning reflected in the water.

The cherry blossom festival was extended this year due to the late flowering of the sakura. But tonight is the last night. I visited last night and while many of the trees were about 30% green leaves, there were a couple of trees that were still full bloom. There were some petals in the pond, but not as much as I've seen in previous years. The 'rafts' of cherry blossom petals on the water is almost as beautiful as the trees in full bloom, in my humble opinion. 

Have you been to Higashimatsuyama City before? Have you ever been to the Higashimatsuyama Cherry Blossom Festival?