Sakura beauty after dark at Niigata's Takada Castle Park [SPOT REPORT]

One of the best places – if not the best – to enjoy cherry blossoms in Niigata Prefecture is at the Takada Castle Park in Joetsu. The park features on the list of Japan's Top 100 sakura spots, and it definitely lives up to that high praise. Somewhere around 4000 cherry blossom trees fill the grounds here, so there is an absolute ton of floral beauty to feast your eyes upon.

As one of the entrants on Japan's top 100 cherry blossom spots list, Takada Castle Park lives up to the hype.

We visited the park last night to enjoy the sakura illuminations, and thought to ourselves that going later in the day would mean it would be less crowded. The blossoms are at full bloom right now, and let's just say that the grounds were pretty jam packed. I think with many events returning to normal this year after cancellations or reductions in scale from past years, people are really coming out in droves to enjoy them again. If crowds aren't your thing, I'd suggest avoiding this event, or maybe planning your visit for first thing in the morning instead. Also, almost everyone we saw was still wearing masks, so I'd recommend bringing one just to be respectful.

Even though we visited in the evening, the park was still absolutely pumping with people ‐ maybe even more so than during the day.

Despite the crowds, the atmosphere was still absolutely beautiful, and I'm glad we went. The sakura festival here runs until April 12th (it started on March 29th), but I would recommend visiting sooner rather than later given that the trees are at full bloom right now. I'm not sure how they'll be holding up in 10 days time!

I love the weeping style of sakura, and this illuminated tree was particularly gorgeous.

Practical info:

A number of temporary parking lots have been set up for the event – there's no parking at the castle park grounds themselves, though. The parking lots are charged at 1000 yen per vehicle.

If you're visiting via public transport, the park is about 15 minutes on foot from JR Takada Station.