Most aircraft enthusiasts go to Japan to take photographs of the active aircraft. We spent some time in the middle of the Cherry Blossom season scooping up preserved aircraft!

Mount Fuji can be seen looming in the back of this Mitsubishi F-1 90-8231, it can be found at Oyama-cho, Shizuoka-ken.

The flowers were omnipresent and as they were hard to avoid it became a sport to get as many shots with as much Cherry blossoms in the frame as possible! F-104J 46-8594 is on the roof of a private collector in Osozawa, Minobu-cho, Yamanashi-ken.

The entrance of the Oka park zoo, Kiryu-shi, Gunma-ken, has a couple of aircraft. This T-6G is believed to be 72-0142. The sign says all you need to know about it :-) It certainly looks happier than many of the animals in the zoo...

Most Beech 65s in Japanese military service were used for training or liaison. This former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force 9101 was a research aircraft obtained from the Geographical Research Institute and is now preserved with the Science Museum of Map and Survey in Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken.

Here is one of the 100 or so preserved Hueys in Japan. We chose one with the nicest Cherry blossom tree. To see UH-1H 41666 you will have to discard your superstition and head for Miyagawa park Watarai-cho, Mie-ken.

Of course, the many army barracks and airfield have preserved aircraft in their base collections too. This OH-6J 31115 sits inside the fence at Utsunomiya Air Base, Tochigi-ken.

Derived from the F-86, this Fuji T-1B 25-5853 was withdrawn in 2006 when it was operated as target tug. Subaru is the namesake of Fuji Heavy Industries since 2017, so you can find T-1s at many Subaru facilities like the one in Ota-shi, Gunma-ken.

To catch this F-86D 94-8146 you will have to head Northwest from Tokyo a bit. It is in the Hijiri Aviation Museum, Omi-mura, Higashichikuma-gun, Nagano-ken. And yes, there was still snow there this April!

Frankly, we nearly gave up on this little gem. As you can see Fuji T-3 11-5540 is tucked in a courtyard of one of the many buildings of the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken.

Hopefully this small selection makes you explore the country a bit further than the main airfield, tourist attractions and toll roads!