Japans Oldest Cherry Blossom

The best thing about living in Japan is spring, and it's just around the corner now. You can feel the warmth creeping in.

About an hour north of where I live is Daigozakura, thought to be the oldest sakura tree in Japan at around 1000 years old. It's so big and heavy that it's branches have to be held up by poles to keep them from collapsing under their own weight.

The tree is a famous photo spot and draws photographers from near and far, so if you want a good spot to shoot from you have to get there early. One night last year when I went I didn't arrive until around 11.00pm and finding a spot to place my tripod was insanely difficult added to that trying to manual focus in the dark (no using flashlights because of ruining everyone else's photos) and still being cold as spring at night isn't the warmest in Japan meant it wasn't the easiest shoot. Side note in terms of etiquette most photographers who go here will shut off the LCD screens on their cameras and tape over the red buffer light from the memory card so as not to piss off other photographers.

If you go during the week it's a lot less busy, but either way you should be prepared to have tripods/ photographers in your shots and remove them later. The tree is illuminated until Midnight (although not enough light to focus by) so many people arrive early and then wait until after 12 to start shooting as they don't like the look of the tree lit up.

A beautiful place to visit none the less if you get chance. It's not the easiest place to find if you don't have a car as it's halfway between Okayama and Tottori. But if you're ever in Okayama hit me up, i'm happy to be your tour guide.

*Disclaimer- I am a full time stock photographer for Getty Images/ iStock. So if you reverse image search yes that will show up, but i have verified (On multiple occasions with @steemcleaners) that i am the owner of these photos.

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