This article is based on a visit made on Thursday, 10 May 2018.
Edit 9 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.
Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited the
Hitachi Seaside Park on a flower-viewing tour, and it did not get off to a good start. Not only were the flowers I had been anticipating unusually out of peak bloom, but a burst of rain had dampened the surroundings, and my mood. By the time we left and made a brief strawberry-picking stop, the rain did let up, at least. That alone helped to lighten the mood, and the surroundings, as we arrived at our next stop that afternoon: the Ashikaga Flower Park (あしかがフラワーパーク,
Ashikaga Furawā Pāku).
To start off with, next to the park's entrance is one of its shops, with many flowers for sale. Here are some hydrangeas (あじさい,
ajisai), which normally bloom during the rainy season in June and July. Based on the faded colours and the specks of green, I'd say these babies had a head-start, but still have a good while to go.
And now for the park's main attraction: the
wisteria trees. In Japanese, their name is "fuji" (藤 / ふじ), spelled the same as
the mountain, but here with emphasis on the "ji". Wisteria trees are characterised by wide, sprawling roots and branches. There are four major varieties of wisteria flowers on display at the park: pink, purple, white, and yellow, which tend to bloom in that order. Still other wisteria vines are arranged above walkways to form tunnels of the flowers. Normally, at this time of year, they look like this...
But this was the actual state of the the tree as I saw it. As with the blue flowers of Hitachi Seaside Park, the accelerated arrival of warm weather left most of the flowers to wilt about a week ahead of schedule. The scale of the trees is still in full effect -- the largest have grown to an area of 1,000 m², or one quarter-acre -- but without the floral hues it is capable of.
A few flowers were stubborn enough to hold onto their vines, giving me an image of what could have been.
At least, I was able to see a greater volume of yellow wisteria. These are not actually wisteria, however, but instead an unrelated plant known as
laburnum or "golden chain" (金鎖,
kingusari). Their blooming period is just after the other wisteria varieties.
Wisteria may be the Ashikaga Flower Park's claim to fame, but they have many, many other varieties of flowers. The early onset of warmer weather meant it was the ideal time for roses (バラ,
bara) to bloom.
Between this, and our next stop, I was surprised as to how many colours of roses there are.
Azaleas (つつじ, tsutsuji) are another variety of flower that bloom around this time, and are also widespread across Japan.
Another kind of flower I saw all over was the
snapdragon, which grows in standing columns. They say that if you pinch one of the flowers in the right way, it sort of looks like a dragon's head, hence the name. I didn't try that, nor did these particular snapdragons look sufficiently bloomed enough to do so, but their form intrigued me nonetheless.
One display that was both colourful and distinctive were the flower pyramids dotting a lake in the back of the park. My curiosity was also drawn to the series of tall cages up in the hills. I wonder what they could be used for...?
Visitors arriving on their own, when conditions are closer to peak, would be best advised to arrive around opening times in the morning, or alternatively, in the evening for special illumination hours, when the wisteria trees and tunnels are lit up from beneath. And the fun doesn't stop when the weather turns cold, either. From late October to early February, the park holds a nightly illumination events. Among the many lights set up on display, they hang violet LEDs from these wisteria trees to simulate the natural hues they are famous for in springtime.
For those who choose to visit outside of a package tour, it used to be a bit inconvenient to get here on one's own. The nearest train station, Tomita, was a 15-minute walk away. That changed on 1 April 2018, when the Ashikaga Flower Park Station opened on the JR Ryomo line. Now, as described in the Access section below, you can take the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train, followed by the aforementioned local train, to get here in as little as an hour and a half from downtown Tokyo.
I took our sign-off selfie among the flower pyramids. Lack of wisteria aside, I found this to be a fulfilling and pleasant place to stroll around, due in large part to the vast varieties of flowers they plant in different seasons. You're sure to find something worth looking at no matter when you come to the park. But for now, our tour would throw in one more stop as a sort of consolation prize, next time on Sekai Ichi!
Hours: Open from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, or from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM from late November to February. Closed from 30 December to 1 January, and the third Wednesday and Thursday in February.
Costs: Varies from ¥300 to 1,800 depending on the season and the condition of flowers within the park.
Address: 607 Hasama-chō, Ashikaga-shi, Tochigi-ken 〒329-4216
Access: From Tokyo Station, take the Tohoku Shinkansen to Oyama (Nasuno/Yamabiko, 40 minutes), then the JR Ryomo line to Ashikaga Flower Park (40 minutes, total ¥4,590 reserved, JR Pass OK). By local trains, via the JR Utsunomiya line, the trip takes an extra 40 minutes, but costs a total of ¥1,980, less than half as much. The park entrance is a straight 4-minute walk from the station's south exit.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
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