Aoyama Cemetery

Aoyama, like Yanaka, hosts a huge cemetery located in the center of Tokyo and open to the public. First opened in 1872 as Tokyo’s’ first municipal cemetery, Aoyama Cemetery hosts many wealthy and historical Japanese figures as its permanent guests, and, surprisingly, Aoyama cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that has a large section dedicated to foreigners (from Europe and America) that came to help modernize Japan.

But what makes Aoyama Cemetery particularly special is its many cherry blossom trees that once a year capture the attention of thousands of people, who can celebrate spring, and life itself, around the graves of their ancestors.