Kawazu-zakura Joren Falls & Nanohana Tour from Tokyo with All-You-Can-Eat Strawberry Picking

Overview

Most of Japan waits until April for cherry blossom. Kawazu, on the Izu Peninsula, does not: its own variety of cherry opens around a month ahead of the rest of Honshu and stays open longer, which is why people make the trip down from Tokyo in February for something the capital will not see for weeks. This is a full day taking in that blossom, a waterfall in the Amagi mountains and as many strawberries as you can eat.

Kawazu-zakura

The Kawazu cherry is a deeper pink than the familiar somei yoshino and it flowers early — the festival runs from roughly early February to early March each year. The trees are planted in a long line along the Kawazu riverbank, and beneath them the banks are sown with nanohana, the yellow rapeseed flower. Pink above, yellow below, water in between: that pairing is the picture the place is known for, and it is why the walk along the river is the centre of the day rather than a stop on the way to something else.

Joren Falls

Inland from the coast, in the Amagi mountains, Joren Falls drops about 25 metres from a basalt cliff into a pool below, some 7 metres across at the lip and thickly wooded all round. It is counted among Japan’s hundred notable waterfalls and sits within the Izu Peninsula Geopark.

The path in follows a mountain stream lined with wasabi beds — Amagi is wasabi country, and the terraced water channels the plant is grown in are a sight in their own right on the way down to the falls.

Strawberries at Izu Fruits Park

The day finishes on the other kind of February produce. At Izu Fruits Park the strawberry picking is all-you-can-eat: you go into the greenhouse and pick and eat as you go, for whatever time the farm allows on the day. Izu’s strawberries are at their best in exactly the weeks the Kawazu blossom is out, which is the reason the two are sold together.

Worth knowing

This is a long day — around ten hours door to door, with the Izu Peninsula a good two and a half to three hours from Tokyo each way, so most of the sitting down happens on the coach. Wear shoes you can walk a riverside path and a wooded track in.

Blossom is weather, not a schedule. The festival dates are fixed each year but peak bloom moves with the winter, and a cold or a mild February shifts it either way — you may arrive to buds or to petals already falling. February on Izu is also colder than Tokyo and often wetter, so bring a proper coat. The order of the stops and the strawberry-picking time limit are set by the operator, and we confirm them with you.