The city's three headline blossom-lighting spots have confirmed their 2026 schedules, and they run later into the night than last year.
Meguro River lights roughly 800 trees along the canal from late March; Chidorigafuchi runs its moat boats under floodlight; Ueno Park strings lanterns down the main avenue. All three peak for barely ten days, weather depending.
Go on a weeknight. The weekend crowds at Meguro turn the riverside path into a single slow-moving line — beautiful, but you won't stop moving. Midweek after 9PM, you get the reflections almost to yourself.