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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!

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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.

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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.

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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...

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Derived from the F-86, this Fuji T-1B 25-5853 was withdrawn in 2006 when it was operated as target tug.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.

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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!

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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!