International Railroad Discussion > Cherry Blossoms (Japan, Oregon)

I, like many others here on TO, am a fan of Hiroshi-san's annual "Spring Time" cherry blossom reports.

He posted a preview in late February, but have yet to post his usual April report:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?6,6140456

I planned a trip to Japan in late March, and as discussed in Hiroshi-san's report above, was hoping for an early blossom season in Japan. I had a challenge for myself, which is to somehow incorporate JR Freight trains with cherry blossoms.

Fortunately, the season was early in Japan. Unfortunately, full blossom was still at least a week away while I was in Tokyo. The prime JR Freight + cherry blossom location in the Tohoku area (north of Tokyo) was at least 2-3 weeks from blossom season, so I ruled that one out. AI (Artificial Intelligence) interfered with my research, and all 3 locations mentioned was a failure based on my scouting. I "coached" the search engine (and AI) for a Yamanote Line blossom location, and AI only got it correct AFTER I found the location from a railfan blog which AI missed on the first pass.

First location in the video is along the Chuo Line, technically the Chuo East Line on the Tokyo side - Katsunuma Budokyo Station in middle of Japan's wine country, Yamanashi Prefecture. FYI, Chuo West Line is on the Nagoya side.

92 mile intercept required riding 2 different limited express trains (Narita Express then Kaiji), and a one station backtrack on a local. No Shinkansen involved. I kept an eye on the opposite direction of travel to see if I might miss the eastbound freight - the tank car/container mix #82 which I last caught more than 8 years ago.

Posted video shows Mission Accomplished. First train is a westbound Limited Express Azusa, Class E353 EMU. Second is the eastbound JR Freight #82 led by EH200 #17. Had I been there a week later with the sun out, the background would have been spectactular... but it was still good enough for me.

3rd train (2nd location) is the result of my scouting and confirming the Yamanote Line + cherry blossom location near Komagome, thanks to Japan's railfan community. Tokyo was almost a week behind Yamanashi in blossoming, so instead of shooting from another angle, I had to unzoom and pan to make the cherry blossoms look decent as JR Freight #3086 (EH500 leader) showed up.

A week later, a day before Winterail, I found full blossoms in Astoria, Oregon (photos). Wish I had this in Japan...

That's it for the belated report.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/26 19:42 by cchan006.

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