Sakura 2027 booking calendar: when trains, Ghibli and Disney open
For cherry blossoms in spring 2027, the room is the only thing you can book today. Everything else opens on a fixed day: shinkansen seats one month ahead, Tokyo Disney two months ahead, the Ghibli Museum on the 10th of the month before. This page puts those days in order, with the normal bloom dates for nine cities.
The short version
- Pick your window from the normal bloom dates below, then book the room and the flight. Nothing else is open yet.
- Shinkansen seats open at 10:00 JST one month before each travel day. On the Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka–Hiroshima line, the smartEX app also takes requests up to a year ahead.
- The dated tickets open in this order: Chichu Art Museum (5th of the month, two months ahead), Ghibli Museum (10th of the month before), Tokyo Disney Resort (two months ahead, 14:00), Pokémon Cafe (31 days ahead, 18:00).
- Set your alarm in Japan time. Every sale on this page opens on a Japanese clock, and the popular ones go in minutes.
- Golden Week starts April 29. If the blossom runs late in the north, that's the week you'll be competing with the whole country for seats.
When the trees normally bloom
The Japan Meteorological Agency watches one sample tree in each city and records the day it opens and the day it reaches full bloom. These are the 1991–2020 normals. A warm year runs a week or more early (Tokyo opened on March 14 in 2023); a cold one runs late.
| City | First bloom (normal) | Full bloom (normal) |
|---|---|---|
| Fukuoka | March 22 | March 31 |
| Tokyo | March 24 | March 31 |
| Nagoya | March 24 | April 2 |
| Hiroshima | March 25 | April 3 |
| Kyoto | March 26 | April 4 |
| Osaka | March 27 | April 4 |
| Kanazawa | April 3 | April 8 |
| Sendai | April 8 | April 13 |
| Sapporo | May 1 | May 6 |
- Full bloom comes about a week after the first flowers open. The petals then hold for a few more days, less if it rains or blows.
- For a Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka trip, the normal window is roughly March 24 to April 7. Arrive a day or two before the normal first bloom in Tokyo and move west with the trees.
- The JMA records what happened. It doesn't forecast. Private weather companies publish 2027 forecasts from winter onward and update them as the season nears, so check again in February and March.
- Missed it? Kanazawa and the Alps are a week behind Kyoto, Sendai two weeks, Sapporo a month. See Japan in March and Japan in April.
What opens when: the rules
| What | Opens | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotels, ryokan, flights | No common rule | Direct or any booking site | Book first. Late March to early April is the busiest fortnight of the year in Kyoto. |
| Shinkansen seats (JR offices, ticket machines, JR Pass holders) | 10:00 JST, one month before the travel day | JR stations, official JR Pass site | Free with a JR Pass. Nozomi needs the extra ticket. |
| Shinkansen seats, smartEX (Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka–Hiroshima–Hakata) | Requests from 5:30 JST one year ahead; confirmed after 14:00 one month before | smartEX app or site | Not for discount Hayatoku fares or oversized-baggage seats. Payment is taken when you request. |
| Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima | 10:00 JST on the 5th of the month, for the month after next | Museum's online ticket site | Timed 15-minute slots; everyone needs a reservation, children too. |
| Ghibli Museum, Mitaka | 10:00 JST on the 10th of the month, for the whole following month | Lawson Ticket (English page) | Reservation only. No tickets sold at the museum. |
| Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea | 14:00 JST daily, for the same date two months later | Official site or app | If the date doesn't exist two months earlier, sales start at 14:00 on the 1st of the next month. |
| Nintendo Museum, Kyoto | Lottery entries from three months before your visit month; results on the 1st of the next month | Official ticket site (Nintendo Account) | Pay by the 7th. Leftover tickets may be sold up to two months ahead. |
| Pokémon Cafe, Tokyo and Osaka | 18:00 JST, 31 days before | Official reservation site | Reservation only; same-day seats only from cancellations. |
| teamLab Planets, Tokyo | No fixed release day published | Official site, Lawson or Seven-Eleven tickets | Timed entry, online only. Nothing is sold at the door. |
All of these were checked on the operators' own pages on November 2, 2026. Rules change; the official page wins over this table.
The calendar for a trip from March 25 to April 5, 2027
Count back from your own dates in the same way. Times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9); Japan has no daylight saving.
| Date (JST) | Book this |
|---|---|
| Now | Rooms and flights. smartEX requests for any shinkansen day from late March 2027 are already open. |
| December 5, 2026, 10:00 | Chichu Art Museum tickets for February visits go on sale (March dates open on January 5; April dates on February 5). |
| December 2026 | Nintendo Museum lottery entries for March 2027 visits (January entries for April visits). Results on January 1 and February 1. |
| January 25, 2027, 14:00 | Tokyo Disney tickets for March 25. Each later day opens at 14:00 on the matching January or February date. |
| February 5, 2027, 10:00 | Chichu Art Museum tickets for April. |
| February 10, 2027, 10:00 | Ghibli Museum tickets for every March date. April dates open on March 10. |
| February 22, 2027, 18:00 | Pokémon Cafe for March 25. Then one evening at a time, 31 days ahead. |
| February 25, 2027, 10:00 | JR seat reservations for March 25. Each travel day opens one month ahead. The last days of March have no matching February date, so check the official site for those. |
| March 25 to April 5, 2027 | Trees. |
Three things people get wrong
- They book the trees, not the dates. Nobody can tell you in November which week Kyoto will bloom. Pick a window around the normals, and plan two or three things that are good even if the trees are early or late.
- They wait for the forecast before booking a room. By the time the first forecast comes out, the good rooms in Kyoto for late March are gone. Rooms first, forecast second.
- They set the alarm in their own time zone. 10:00 in Tokyo is 01:00 in London and 17:00 the previous day in Los Angeles.
Questions
Do I need a reservation for the blossom spots themselves?
Parks, riversides and most temple grounds don't take bookings. A few gardens and night illuminations sell dated tickets each year; their 2027 pages aren't up yet, so check each place in February.
Should I buy a JR Pass for a cherry blossom trip?
It depends on your route, not the season. The pass covers Hikari and Kodama trains on the Tokyo–Kyoto line, with free seat reservations that open one month ahead. See the JR Pass guide and riding the shinkansen with it.
What if the blossom is early?
Watch the forecasts from February. If Tokyo is running a week early, the same shift usually applies to Kyoto and Osaka. Rooms are the hard thing to move; train seats open a month ahead, so you can still choose your days then.
Is Golden Week a problem for a cherry blossom trip?
Only if you're late. The Tokyo–Kyoto window normally closes well before April 29. Northern cities such as Sendai and Sapporo can overlap with the holidays, when trains and rooms fill. See holidays and closures.
psst, put the sale dates in your phone calendar as events at the Japanese time, with your own time zone showing. The alarm does the counting for you.