足利フラワーパーク – Ashikaga Flower Park

[Original Travel Date: 5/3/2014]

Tis the season of flowers and business is blooming… Sorry, couldn’t resist. Kidding aside, the timing and weather could not have been more perfect for my first (and hopefully not the last) visit to the highly reputed Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi prefecture. The skies were clear, the sun was out, and the wisteria were in full bloom. Known as fuji in Japanese, seeing these flowers is clearly the main attraction as well as the highlight of the park.  I never knew wisteria came in different colors until I came here.  Not only various shades of purple, but also pink, white, and even yellow. I often found myself forgetting that what I was admiring was in fact the branches of a single tree.

One especially nice thing about the park is the way it is designed. Every twist and turn and winding path reveals something new, and even if it’s the same type of flower the arrangement is different. Aside from the wisteria, there are many other flowers in bloom.  The azaleas are particularly eye-catching.

The park is of course beautiful and there are many flowers to take pictures of and enjoy, but it’s not extremely large so it can easily be done in a half day or less.  There are numerous shops and restaurants/food stalls to shop for souvenirs or eat lunch/have a snack.  If you like gardening, you can even buy potted wisteria and other flowers and plants to take home with you.

You might want to try the park’s original “Fuji Soft”, which is fuji-flavored softserve ice cream.  I can’t say whether it actually tastes like wisteria having never eaten a wisteria before, but it does taste good and it certainly smells like wisteria.  It is also a lovely color.

If you do decide to visit the Flower Park during this season, try to arrive as early as possible.  I arrived at about 8:15, the park had been open for a little over an hour, and it was still crowded.  As I was heading back to the station from the park at about 10:30, I passed masses of people heading toward the park (including at least 2 large tour groups).  So, definitely try to get to Ashikaga Flower Park early, especially if you intend to eat there as it will be extremely difficult to find anywhere to sit/eat without a long wait.  If you do arrive later, however, a fun way to avoid having to wait for food is to bring a picnic lunch to eat on the many benches and open lawn space available in the park.  And if you can spare the time, consider staying or coming back to see the park illuminated at night.

ALSO, if you are fearful of or allergic to bees, be very careful!  At this time of year with so many blossoms in full bloom, bees are bound to be out and about, but they are everywhere and in large numbers.  Not just bumblebees either.  There were so many it reached the point several times that (with the crowds) I couldn’t avoid running right into them.