If you’re in Japan in late April or May, that usually means you’ve already missed the famous Sakura season but don’t worry, they have other flowers to see, like the wisteria, which I think are the dreamiest, most romantic flowers I have ever seen in my life. We had the pleasure of seeing them in full bloom at the Great Wisteria Festival at the Ashikaga Flower Park.
How to get there: take the JR Utsunomiya Line, JR Shonan-Shinjuku Line or JR Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Oyama (only a few shinkansen stop there) and transfer to the JR Ryomo Line. Get off at Ashikaga Flower Park Station, next to the park. The one way ride takes about 80 minutes and 4000 yen by shinkansen but if you have the JR pass (which we did), it’s covered.
Even before we reached the location, we could already smell the fragrant scent of the wisteria wafting outside the garden. It really smells intoxicating, like perfume or scented stationery.
It was raining on the day that we went, and we forgot to bring umbrellas, but luckily they sold clear umbrellas inside. I was hoping that they would have the clear umbrellas, because they look cool in photos! See for yourself!
There were different kinds of wisteria on the grounds. Different coloured ones, with different lengths. See if you can spot the differences.
They sold food inside the park. We had takoyaki and wisteria flavoured soft serve ice cream.
It tasted like – well – flowers. So if that’s not your thing maybe don’t buy it. Flisha didn’t finish hers. I would have finished mine if I hadn’t been such a klutz who ended dumping that entire ice cream on my top. I guess it was better than slipping on the ground. Serves me right for giggling at the “waterslide” warnings.
If you want a wisteria souvenir, I suggest getting the wisteria perfume instead. It smells just like the flowers so every time you spritz it on, you go back to this moment!
There were other flowers there, as well, aside from the wisteria.
I’m really glad I was in time to see them! I can’t recommend it enough!
Great Wisteria Festival at Ashikaga Flower Park
607 Hasama-cho, Ashikaga city, Tochigi Prefecture 329-4216
Opening period: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Ashikaga.co.jp
Japan Posts:
🇯🇵 Full Japan itinerary with costing
🇯🇵 Tokyo Tour
🇯🇵 Mt Fuji & Hakone Tour
🇯🇵 Great Wisteria Festival @ Ashikaga Flower Park
🇯🇵 Kyoto 2 Days Tour
🇯🇵 One Day in Osaka
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Nice!! I’ve never been! Which month is this? A nice change from the usual Sakura photos!
Late April! Apparently they’re in full bloom in May though, there were some plants that weren’t in bloom yet, like the golden ones.