Hello readers, I hope you’re doing well. It begins to feel like autumn here, yet the weather is still a bit unstable (sometimes hot and sometimes chilly). Did I ever tell you that spring and autumn is my favourite season? Last spring I went to Satte Sakura Festival in Saitama. There’s a lot of nice place to see the sakura in Saitama. I’ve been to Nagatoro last year, so this year I decided to go somewhere else.
Satte Sakura Festival
Satte is city in Saitama prefecture. Saitama is quite big and Satte is the area that located close to Tokyo Area. It’s possible to go there with train, but I went there with my friends who have a baby, so we rent a car.
The place is only 1 hour drive from Tokyo. If you take the train, you need to stop at Satte Station. The Sakura festival is an annual event that takes place at Gogendo Park, it’s 15minutes taxi drive from Satte Station.
The festival is normally very short. It depends on the timing when the sakura blooms. This year, the festival was held from 26 March, 2017 – 9 April, 2017. I came a little bit early I guess.. When I was there, the not all flowers bloomed already. I apologize if the photos look so patchy and not pretty at all.
Gogendo park is quite big and like other festivals, it’s full of food stalls and people laying their mat and enjoy the view. If you walk a little bit towards the end of the park, you can find a small lamb and goat’s stall. That’s my friend Sara and her lamb daughter.
Beside the 1-km-long row of sakura trees, I think the sight of blossoming rapeseed flowers is the one that makes this park really beautiful. I like the color blue, pink, and yellow mixed together creating a really beautiful scenery. The park has around 1000 sakura tress and a lot of people had picnic there. It was too bad that when I came there the weather was not that good either.
I went there on 1st April (or even before that). It was still a bit cold, so you better wear your coat or jacket.
The parks open from 7AM to 10PM during the sakura festival. When the night comes, I think they would light the sakura trees so it gives a really mysterious yet beautiful atmosphere. No admission fee needed, unless if you come by car, I think you need to pay the parking fee.
Speaking of parking, there’s a huge parking spot just next to the park, so you don’t have to worry. Another good thing is.. this park has different variety of flower in every season. If you miss the sakura, you can come for narsiscus in winter or hydrangea in summer.
Tl;dr
Satte might seem like a small city. However, if you’re looking for a good photos, sakura experience, or simply want to stroll and rest under the sakura trees, so Satte might be the place for you. It’s not far from Tokyo (1.5 hour train) and less crowded compared to Shinjuku Gyoen or Ueno Park.
For more information about Satte Sakura Festival, click here
See you on the next post and as usual, your comments are always loved <3