Flower Park Exploration

Jaime Wong
Apr 22, 2018
3 min read

Another day out today, but today’s trip was in Gunma only, and the focus was on all the flower parks! Because spring this year has been so hot, all the flowers have peaked super early. Normally the wisteria and nemophila peak during Golden Week, which is when all the people in Japan go to see them, but this year they all peaked way before Golden Week. I was actually pretty happy to hear that, because then I don’t have to worry about Golden Week crowds! Woke up at 7:30am, went to fuel up a bit again, and then went to pick up 3 other ALT friends at 1 ALT’s house. We then set off to our first flower park of the day, みさと芝桜公園! Arrived at around 9:15am, and there was practically no one around, when I compared it with yesterday’s Hitachi Seaside Park trip, I love Gunma! The flowers were really pretty and so super pink! We spent a while in the park, had some ice cream as well, and then headed back into central Takasaki for an early lunch.

We went to a café I’d seen before from my school librarian’s photos called Noir Café, and when we arrived we found out that it was actually a café that allows you to bring your dogs! The café owner also had two dogs of her own there, and they were so cute and extremely friendly and affectionate. The lunch deal was so good - ¥1000 for soup, salad, main (I got the rice gratin), dessert, and coffee or tea! I upped mine to ¥1300 because I wanted a caramel latte instead of the normal coffee. One of the dogs was being super cute, and came and sat behind me on the couch, and was climbing onto my lap and everything! Maybe that sofa is its favourite spot. We spent a while in the café just relaxing (so many other pups came in!) since it was pretty hot outside. After we’d rested up, we headed to the next park, Tobu Treasure Garden! This was a bit of a further drive, about an hour long. This garden was really pretty, and it was actually very Western styled with the buildings and fountains. The flowers in bloom at this park were the nemophila and 芝桜. Again the garden wasn’t crowded at all so it was super lovely. Had another ice cream after we finished with the garden, and then headed to our last park of the day, Ashikaga Flower Park! There were definitely a lot more people at this park, which was to be expected since it’s very famous for its wisteria flowers. They were also doing a lightup event in the evening, so there were a lot of people around for that. Lined up outside a bit waiting for it to turn to 17:00 so that we could get the cheaper evening tickets, then we went in! The wisteria flowers really were super pretty!!! It was crowded, but the flowers were all above us so I could still get some nice photos. There were definitely a lot more foreigners at this park than compared to the other previous two. Walked around the whole park to see all the different wisteria (there were so many) and also this really cool pink flower area, and then we called it a day. Drove my friends back to theirs, and then drove home myself.