One of Niigata's Top Cherry Blossom Spots

The Gosen area of Niigata is known for its flowers, but initially, tulips are the first thing that likely comes to mind for many of us who live here. Gosen produces the largest number of tulips in the prefecture, and in typical years the town hosts a tulip festival to celebrate the beautiful blooms.

They’re certainly not the only flowers you can appreciate out this way, though. There is a beautiful park to enjoy the best of sakura season in Gosen called Muramatsu Park, and its claim to fame is being one of Niigata’s three entrants on Japan’s list of the Top 100 Cherry Blossom viewing spots – for those who are curious, the other two spots are the Takada Castle Park and along the Okotsu Canal. The number of sakura trees at Muramatsu Park is somewhere around the 3000 mark, so in other words, there is a ton of floral beauty to go around!

Muramatsu Park in Gosen, Niigata, is one of the prefecture’s spots on Japan’s Top 100 Cherry Blossom viewing spots list. This is one of my favorite vantage points in the whole park.

If you do plan to visit Muramatsu Park for sakura season, I highly recommend visiting on a weekday if you have the ability to. I’ve had friends visit on weekends and they mentioned it was difficult to find parking, but I visited during the week in the past and it was extremely pleasant with only a handful of people wandering around. I think the peaceful, uncrowded experience of sakura viewing is a lot nicer and more relaxing! The park also usually illuminates the sakura trees after dark during the season, so visiting later in the evening is another option if you’d prefer.

If you’re crowd-averse, I highly recommend visiting the park on a weekday if you can. You’ll feel like you basically have the park to yourself, which is delightful!

Outside sakura season, the park is still quite a popular place to visit. There are various other spring and early-summer blooms like azaleas and hydrangeas, plus some really picturesque fall foliage later in the year. If you have children, there is also plenty of playground equipment to keep them occupied, so I highly recommend the park for a family-friendly spring day out.

My previous visit to the park missed the peak for some of the blooms, but there's still lots to enjoy even when the sakura start to fall.

Access Info :

Muramatsu Park is located just under 15 minutes by taxi from JR Gosen Station on the Ban'etsu West Line. Buses are also available for a more budget-friendly option – take the Gosen City Fureai Bus until you reach the Muramatsu Koen Mae stop, and the park is just a few minutes away on foot from there. The bus travel time is about 18 minutes.

If you’re visiting the area by car, the park is around 25 minutes driving time from the Yasuda IC on the Banetsu Expressway, or around 50 minutes from the Tsubame-Sanjo IC on the Hokuriku Expressway.