Good morning! The blooms are advancing! What will this week's cold snap do?! Tsukigase Plum Valley Plum Festival February 14, 2026–March 29, 2026

The time has finally come!! Tsukigase’s major event that draws about 200,000 visitors over roughly three weeks!! The Tsukigase Plum Grove Plum Festival!! Tsukigase Plum Grove was designated as Japan’s first nationally recognized Place of Scenic Beauty!! We look forward to welcoming many visitors again this year!!

New Year Greetings Happy New Year. We sincerely thank you for your warm support and cooperation in promoting the charms of Tsukigase over the past year. Tsukigase, which has grown alongside its plum trees, reveals a new face with each season and has nurtured itself as a countryside that quietly soothes the hearts of its visitors. This year as well, we hope it remains a place where nature and people live side by side and calm exchanges flourish. The annual Tsukigase Baikei Plum Festival, which heralds the arrival of spring, will be held again this year. Some 13,000 plum trees paint the mountainside, and with river mist rising in the valleys, a scene like a page from a picture scroll unfolds. During the festival, you can stroll the walking trails and enjoy locally made specialties for sale, savoring peaceful moments close to nature. The gentle scent of plum blossoms swaying in the breeze will quietly restore energy to bodies and minds that have passed through a long winter. This year, the Tsukigase Tourism Association will continue to cherish warm connections with visitors while protecting the region’s attractions. We ask for your continued support, and we sincerely pray that the coming year will be peaceful and fruitful for everyone. With that, we offer our New Year greetings. Chairman: Toshiaki Nishioka Photo credit: Kuraya eto Shuji

Good morning ☀ #This morning in Tsukigase #Satoyama landscape #A village of flowers, greenery, and water #Autumn #I want to connect with people who love photography #Nara Prefecture #Nara City #Nara sightseeing

Good morning ☀ #Tsukigase this morning #Satoyama landscape #A village of flowers, greenery, and water #Autumn #Looking to connect with fellow photography lovers #Nara Prefecture #Nara City #Nara tourism

Good morning ☀ #This morning in Tsukigase #Satoyama landscape #A village of flowers, greenery, and water #Autumn #I want to connect with people who like photography #Nara Prefecture #Nara City #Nara tourism

Good morning ☀ This morning in Tsukigase.

Around Spring of this year, my father and mother and I Outbound to Nara. I was usually aware that I was being raised by a good couple, but on this day, we were both in a very good mood, probably because it was the yellowtail first time in a long time that we were traveling with three people. I took a lot of pictures as usual on this day, but this was the first time I took a picture for my mother! I think I was asked. I took a two-shot photo of my mother and father. Both my mother and father are shy people, so I can't put them on social media or show them to anyone, but they are carefully displayed at the entrance of my house. As a daughter, I think that such a place brings out the character of the two of them, and they are a very cute couple. This photo is a rare photo that both of my parents complimented. They don't always show any particular interest in photography, and since we both have completely different sensibilities, they rarely compliment us together. However, this photo is displayed on the TV stand as a favorite. My No. 1 memory of Spring this year is this.

This is a photo of my mother and I when we went to Oka Temple in Nara to see hydrangeas. Of course, the hydrangeas were beautiful and wonderful, but I was very impressed by the stones struck by the waterfall standing dignified next to the hydrangeas. I thought that this kind of scenery is the beauty of Japan that has not changed in the past and even now, and that it has been passed down from generation to generation along with the uninterrupted Water.

Mt. Yoshino, cherry blossoms and Mt. Kinpu Temple It is a landscape that has begun to bask in the morning. 2025/4 Mt. Yoshino, Nara

Good morning ☀ #This morning at Tsukigase #Satoyama landscape #Tsukigase Plum Valley #Nara #Nara sightseeing #Reiwa 7 Tsukigase Plum Valley Plum Festival 2025/2/9–3/30 Tsukigase Plum Valley Plum Festival! The trees are in full bloom! Weekdays are relatively peaceful and calm! Please come and visit♪ Photo: Yasunori Okamoto

Tsukigase Plum Valley Ume Festival is now underway! Until March 23! The plum blossoms are beautiful with their buds together♪ They will be in full bloom from today through the final day! We look forward to welcoming many visitors!

A cold snap hits the Tsukigase Plum Valley Plum Festival! The plum blossoms haven’t opened yet, but a spectacular bloom of snow flowers has appeared ❄️ Photo: Yasuki Okamoto

Tsukigase Plum Valley Plum Festival is now underway! At Romantopia Tsukigase, Yumekko Cafeteria is open♪ At Romantopia Tsukigase, enjoy the proud "irori set" cooked over a sunken hearth: you grill Tsukigase-grown log shiitake mushrooms, homemade konnyaku, and yomogi rice dumplings over charcoal yourself! Cover them generously with our special yuzu miso and enjoy♪ We also recommend our udon dishes, made with carefully prepared dashi broth!! The meat udon features Iga beef plus shiitake, spinach, and thinly sliced mochi for a luxurious bowl! We carry many souvenirs not only from Tsukigase but from neighboring areas as well! A cold snap has arrived, so the plum blossoms still haven't opened much yet... For now, food beats flowers♪ When the blossoms are at their peak, every teahouse gets extremely crowded! Come now for the food while you can♪

Candy Color When I looked at Mt. Yoshino in Spring, it looked 😊 sweet * Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism unmanned aerial vehicle flight permission has been obtained. * Notification of flight plan and preparation of flight log book

The poster for the 2025 Tsukigase Plum Valley Plum Festival is complete!! Each year, we select the gold‑prize photograph from the photo contest held during the festival period for the poster image. We hope many people will visit this year’s plum festival, take lots of photos, and make lasting memories of Tsukigase! From the early‑spring Tsukigase Marathon to the Spring Breeze Plum Village Friendship Festival and sencha tea festival at Romantopia Tsukigase, plus a haiku competition and Nara‑zome textile exhibition, the event lineup is packed with activities!! At the tea houses that open only during the festival, you can enjoy Tsukigase specialties you’ll find nowhere else: Tsukigase hot pot, country udon, wild boar hot pot, plum soft serve, charcoal‑grilled kusa‑mochi, plum roll cakes, and more! May many smiles bloom again this year! All members of the Tsukigase Tourism Association are working hard to prepare and look forward to your visit!

Happy New Year. Warm New Year greetings from Tsukigase Plum Valley. Tsukigase Plum Valley lets you take in at a glance the plum blossoms and the gorge, with the plum seen as the harbinger of spring. Designated a Place of Scenic Beauty in 2020 and now marking 100 years, the Tsukigase Tourism Association, together with local residents, works to preserve this wonderful plum gorge so everyone can enjoy it. The “Tsukigase Plum Valley Plum Festival,” starting on February 9, opens with the 40th Tsukigase Plum Valley Early Spring Marathon on its first day and runs through a variety of events up to the Spring Banquet on March 23, with preparations underway to welcome everyone. We ask that you visit Tsukigase Plum Valley, which we have spent a year preparing, and offer this as our New Year greeting. Noriaki Ida, President, Tsukigase Tourism Association

　This is a photo of the moss garden of Toshodai-ji Temple in Nara Prefecture. Hail came down at the right time, so I took a picture with my camera close so that I could see it.

40th Anniversary Event Tsukigase Plum Valley Early Spring Marathon Guest runner: Kenji Moriwaki! Registration is open now! Search for "Tsukigase Plum Valley Early Spring Marathon"♪

I took an aerial photo of Mt. Yoshino with a drone. Mt. Yoshino is famous for its thousand cherry blossoms. Autumn leaves are also beautiful in autumn. Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture "Mt. Yoshino" 2024/11

Autumn leaves frame The thirteen-storied pagoda is surrounded by maples. Anyway, it's beautiful, so it's definitely a Spot you want to visit in autumn. Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture "Tanzan Shrine" 2024/11/28

Fudo Shichie Waterfall in Shimokitayama Village, Nara Prefecture, is a terraced waterfall with a drop of about 160m. You can take pictures from the forest road of the Maeoni River. If you go up this forest road, you will reach the early inn of the Omine Oku Drive.

It is the autumn of the stone tower in Shimokitayama Village, Nara Prefecture. The forest road to get here has many rockfalls and be careful of punctures. I also cut the side of the tire. It is a spectacular view lined with rocky peaks, but you need to be careful when driving.

Sasano Falls in Totsugawa Village, Nara Prefecture, has a drop of about 32 meters and has been selected as one of the 100 best waterfalls in Japan.

Autumn leaves of Mifune Falls in Kawakami Village, Nara Prefecture. The winter icefall is also famous.

It is a golden Mountain stream that I encountered while driving along a forest road in Kamikitayama Village in Nara Prefecture in search of the scenery of Autumn leaves.

"The Climbing Dragon of the Nagome Valley" National Route 309 * commonly known as Namego Valley, which runs in the middle of the deep mountain valley and is located along the Squid Forest Road, has evergreen conifers on the mountain surface and broad-leaved vegetation only on the ridge line. Autumn leaves undulate the ridge in autumn, creating an unusual sight like a dragon climbing up. The sun was shining on the broad-leaved trees.

A typhoon has passed. In Tsukigase, Nara, there is Tsukigase Plum Valley, which was designated as Japan’s first nationally recognized Scenic Spot 100 years ago. During the Plum Festival, held from mid-February through the end of March, many photographers gather from early morning to capture the breathtaking views where the plum groves, the valley, and the sea of clouds meet. However the best time to see Tsukigase Plum Valley is not only in spring. Its fresh green in summer, autumn foliage, and snowy winter landscapes charm visitors through every season. This submission is not of the verdant summer valley but of the sunrise after a typhoon. At first the valley was shrouded in thick river mist, but the fog gradually lifted and the sun began to break through. The way sunlight pierces the shifting mist is truly dramatic. Photo: Yasunori Okamoto

This photo was taken at the wind chime festival in Ofusa Kannon, Nara Prefecture. The wind chimes ringing in the summer breeze seemed to make me forget the sun and sweat.

Baikoan Located in Tsukigase, Nara, Baikoan is Japan’s sole maker of karoubai (processed plum) that has preserved a production method passed down there for about seven hundred years without alteration. Karoubai refers to processed ume fruit, introduced to Nara as a medicine some 1,300 years ago by envoys to Sui and Tang China. Around seven hundred years ago, during the Nanbokucho period, it reached Tsukigase as a mordant for safflower dyeing. From the late Edo period through the early Meiji era, karoubai reached its heyday as a mordant for cosmetic red dye, and some 400 karoubai workshops operated, but demand plunged after the invention of chemical dyes. By the early Showa era only a few producers remained; after the war Baikoan became the sole manufacturer and continues to this day. Baikoan cultivates plums, rice, and vegetables and processes food across 30,000 square meters of verdant land and rich nature. Although the plums in Tsukigase were originally planted to make karoubai, the sight of plum trees in full bloom reflected on the valley and river of the Satsukigawa captivated people and made this area Japan’s first officially designated scenic spot. During the plum festival from February through the end of March, our shop offers dining and hanami from scenic box seats filled with the scent of plum. In Reiwa 6 (2024) we built the Nara Beni Workshop. This Japanese-style building incorporates traditional Japanese craftsmanship throughout. Inside the workshop, where you can feel delicate, advanced techniques and Japanese aesthetics, visitors can experience safflower dyeing using karoubai. We hope the experience becomes an opportunity to rediscover the wonders of Japanese culture. Watching the ever-changing colors of nature and the early-morning sea of clouds spreading across the Tsukigase valley can create the illusion of being in a plum paradise. Early spring light, tranquil fresh greens, the bounty of autumn, the scents of winter. We live and work with the seasons in the strict yet warm nature of Tsukigase.