Photo By: Elin Chow

Leaving Osaka Castle Park, we headed to Kema Sakuranomiya Park next. Located just a few hundred metres from Osaka Castle, Kema Sakuranomiya Park is a riverside park that is famous for cherry blossoms viewing.

Getting from Osaka Castle Park to Kema Sakuranomiya Park is easy. The closest station is Sakuranomiya Station. To get to Sakuranomiya Station, you will need to walk to Morinomiya Station and take the JR Osaka Loop Line. It will take about 7 minutes and costs 160 Yen to get from Morinomiya Station to Sakuranomiya Station.

Stretching over four kilometres along the Ogawa river, Kema Sakuranomiya Park is one of the popular cherry blossoms viewing spots for the local Japanese people. There are over 4,500 cherry trees scattered within the park.


The park is a great place for strolling, cycling and jogging. You can enjoy a picnic or a relaxing stroll along the river under the flowering trees.There are lots of benches around the park where you can sit, take a rest and enjoy doing nothing.


We did not take a stroll in the park, but rather we stood on a bridge that is located near Sakuranomiya Station and enjoyed looking down on the pink forest of cherry blossoms from the top. Surprisingly, the park does not attract as many foreign tourists as the nearby Osaka Castle. Most people we saw here were locals, thus the park is very quiet and serene.

The other way to enjoy the cherry blossoms along both side of the river is to take a river cruise. The Okawa Sakura Cruise is a 25 minutes cruise that only operates during the cherry blossoms season. The boat departs at Hachikenyahama Harbour, in front of Temmabashi Station at every 10 to 20 minutes.

Price for the cruise is 1,200 Yen for adult, 600 Yen for elementary school children and free for children under elementary school age. However, it is free for one child of elementary school age or under who is accompanied by an adult.

The cherry trees are illuminated at night from end of March to Mid April, so you can enjoy cherry blossoms during both day time and night time. Seeing cherry blossoms at night is an entirely different experience! We have enjoyed fantastic night view of cherry blossoms at Meguro River in Tokyo and Kyoto Botanical Garden.


We only stayed here briefly because it was a really chilly day. After taking some photos, we decided to head back to Namba Station to grab a late lunch. From Sakuranomiya station, we took the JR Osaka Loop Line to Tsuruhashi Station. Then transfer to OsakaMetro Sennichimae Line to Namba Station.

We had lunch at Sarashina Hirotaya, a restaurant that specializes in Udon and Soba noodles that is located near Namba Station. The restaurant is pretty spacious with plenty of seating. There was no English menu, so we have to take photo of what we want from their display outside and show it to their staffs to order our food. But the staffs were very friendly despite not being fluent in English.

Price: 850 Yen

I ordered udon noodle soup with beef while my husband ordered udon noodle soup with seafood. The soup was rich in taste and deeply flavored and the price was fairly cheap. However the serving size is a little small. You might want to order their noodles-rice combination sets if you have a big appetite.