While the cherry blossoms in most locations in Osaka, Nara and Kyoto have faded, but only 1 hour by train from Kyoto, the cherry blossom road in Makino is currently at its peak.

Shiga's cherry blossoms bloom quite late compared to Kyoto. Photo taken on April 13, 2024.

The closest train station to this location is Makino Station. Address: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dVL7RAMiR2wEjhdo6

Right in front of Makino station there are also two rows of beautiful tuilips.

Kaidzu-Osaki cherry blossom road is about 2km from Makino station, we can walk or rent bicycles at the shops in front of the train station to go.

Address of cherry blossom road: https://maps.app.goo.gl/e5EXbgosjiRBcABBA

Beach in front of Makino station
Bicycle rental shop in front of Makino station.

Bicycle rental shop address: https://maps.app.goo.gl/T8EL2RKh7WVvo7icA

The bicycles here are all power assisted bicycles, with rental prices of 1000 JPY for 3 hours and 1500 JPY for 6 hours of rental. However, you will have to return the car before 5pm. For this reason, I decided not to rent a car, because I wanted to comfortably watch the sunset on this road.

I decided to walk to see the full scenery here until sunset.
Walking can also make it easier to stop and take photos like this.
It will take about 20-30 minutes to walk, starting here.
Along the way there are also many beautiful scenery that I can take pictures of.

Makino is a really peaceful town, not as crowded as other famous tourist destinations, allowing you to slowly enjoy the beautiful scenery here.

A street corner in Makino town.
Tulips, peach blossoms and Lake Biwa.

This town is located right next to Lake Biwa, Japan's largest freshwater lake. So we can also easily find beautiful views overlooking the lake like this.

After about 30 minutes of walking, I reached the Kaidzu-Osaki cherry blossom road.

There are more than 800 Somei Yoshino peach trees along 4km of this road.

The cherry blossoms here bloom quite late compared to Kyoto, Osaka or Nara.

We can walk along this road to admire the scenery, or we can rent a boat to row in Lake Biwa.

Kaidzu-Osaki is also famous for its scenic boating.

Or if you don't want to row a boat, there will also be sightseeing boats like this to serve tourists:

Kaidzu-Osaki cherry blossom viewing train
Sightseeing train in Kaidzu-Osaki.
But I decided to still walk so I could more easily stop to take photos.
The cherry blossom trees here grow very low, so I could easily take photos with the boatmen in the distance.

The scenery in Kaidzu-Osaki reminds me of Ine fishing village in Kyoto. It's really similar, from the scenery to the peace here. (You can read my article about Ine and Amanohashidate fishing villages here THIS).

Actually, the scenery in Kaidzu-Osaki is very similar to the fishing village of Ine.
After walking for a while, I discovered this "Lonely Cherry Blossom Tree". 😀
And I stood here for quite a long time to admire the scenery, as well as to capture beautiful moments with this cherry blossom tree.

I will locate this cherry blossom tree here so you can easily find it: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jRfeGugBnqpCF4yT7

Continue along the road. This time I went down so I could see Lake Biwa too.

Today is a very beautiful sunny day, so my photos today don't need too much editing, because the original photos are already very beautiful.

The surface of Lake Biwa is also very calm, without many ripples, so I really like taking photos of the boats here. Like floating on a lake.

The scene is very chill.

In addition, the flower branches and sparkling lake surface are also my favorite "subjects" here.

The cherry blossoms here are pink and white, looking quite eye-catching.

At the end of the road there will be a point where you can buy tickets to board a sightseeing cruise. Each ride takes about 50 minutes, and the ticket price is 2,500 JPY/person.

In addition, there are also many restaurants that you can try. Here, they serve dishes such as Udon, tempura, roasted chestnuts, or seafood dishes, etc. In front of the restaurant are also two extremely large weeping peach trees, and have a very beautiful dark pink color.

There is also a public toilet next to it.

At the end of the road there is a temple called Osaki Dera, located on the mountain, but without having to climb too much, so I also climbed up to visit.

Address of Osaki Dera Temple: https://maps.app.goo.gl/DDtCFwNingqNb6g27

In front of the temple there is also an ancient cherry blossom tree, very large and in mankai (the most blooming time).

After a few minutes of sitting here and resting, I walked back in time to catch the sunset at Lake Biwa. The time I started coming back was around 4:30 p.m.

You will encounter wonderful views on the way back!
Sunset is the golden hour, so the sunlight is very beautiful and easy to photograph.

The golden sunlight of the sunset also changes the color of the cherry blossoms to a different color, very strange 😀

And this is the time when I started taking the most photos. Beautiful from the light to the scenery and colors.
My best photos today will start from here...
A few flower branches grow from the tree trunk and are about to bloom.
The golden color of the sunset is really beautiful.
The sun shines through the trees…
Another “lonely cherry blossom tree” 😀
A super cute Japanese couple.

After walking for a while, I returned to the cherry blossom tree that I photographed in the morning.

The sunset makes the water surface sparkle. Very beautiful.

Join me here to admire the scenery and see if I can catch any beautiful moments 😀

The first moment. A very cool couple.
Second moment. A family is walking with their dog. The dog is also standing and looking at me haha.

At this point, the sun was gradually setting behind the mountain, so I quickly moved to other locations to capture more angles.

The sun is gradually setting behind the mountain.
Let's see its diving process.
The last rays of sunlight of the day.

Here I met a friend from Hong Kong, and took photos with her until sunset.

Still in time to take photos with the last rays of sunlight of the day.
Today's model also uses a Fujifilm like me 😀
The sun has gone down behind the mountain, but this is the most beautiful time of the day.

Believe me, the scenery in real life is much more beautiful than in the photos.

This is one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, next to the sunset in Enoshima.
My favorite photo today. The moment a bird is flying over a beautiful sunset.
End a perfect photo day with a photo of your friend.

This is really a place you should go during cherry blossom season. You can admire the flowers and see the peaceful town located next to the vast Biwa Lake, without being overcrowded like other cherry blossom viewing locations. My full photo session lasts about 6 hours, from 1pm to 7pm, so you should plan your time here accordingly.

Kaidzu Osaki – a place on my list of favorite places in Japan.

And finally, today's author. Thank you for reading to the end of the article!

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