Mito Plum Blossom Festival

Kairakuen was laid out by the lord of Mito in the nineteenth century as a garden to be shared with his people, and its plum orchard was planted as much for the fruit as the flowers. Today its three thousand trees, of many varieties, make it the country's most celebrated place to see ume, the plum blossom that opens in the cold weeks before the cherry and carries a scent the cherry never has. The festival runs from mid-February to late March across the garden and the Kodokan, the former domain school in the town below, where more plums bloom around the old lecture halls.

Because the varieties open at different times, the season is long and the peak broad, but the fullest display across the orchard falls in late February and early March. Weekend evenings during the festival bring an illumination of the trees and a programme of events, from tea ceremonies to performances by the festival's "plum ambassadors". Weekdays are far quieter, and a clear cold morning is the best time for the scent.

Mito is reached from Tokyo by limited express on the Joban Line, and Kairakuen is a bus ride or a long walk from the station; on festival weekends the seasonal Kairakuen Station beside the garden is opened. The garden itself, with its bamboo grove, cedar wood and views over Lake Senba, deserves a slow circuit beyond the orchard. Expect crisp weather, a mostly Japanese crowd and, on weekends, a fair-ground of stalls at the garden's lower entrance.