Sometimes you just have to take a trip outside Tokyo to see things you can’t see in town, and these four destinations are absolutely worth the travel time during wisteria season. If you’re in Japan in late April to early May, GO!
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ASHIKAGA FLOWER PARK
This first one is all wisteria all the time, but it’s Japanese flower extravaganzas at their finest, and worth the travel time to see nothing but flowers. This park has the biggest, baddest wisteria in all the land, and there are a LOT of them.
Each variety is more spectacular than than the last, and they come in all colors, from purple ones that are more like trees than vines…
to pink ones trained into a spectacular bridge canopy.
Yellow ones enclose a tunnel to another world…
and white ones arch over the most enchanted place you’ll ever eat.
They’re beautiful during the day…
and even better at night! The park is designed to maximize photos, with reflecting pools and walkways all around the beauties, so they—and their reflections—can be shot from every angle.
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ODAWARA CASTLE
If you’re headed to Odawara to see the truly excellent castle and samurai museum…
this fabulously large wisteria’s long purple streamers are well worth a hike to the far edge of the grounds.
This wisteria island sits next to a lovely reflecting lotus pond…
and there are inviting benches all along the wide gallery of dappled shade it casts.
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YAKUSHIIKE PARK in Machida
This wisteria here make a stunning backdrop for Yakushiike Park’s Taiko Bridge and its lovely wooded landscape.
Its layers and layers of trellis are beautiful against the lush green and the white bridge…
and one of the vast vines is an exquisitely pale pink.
If you look up, it’s like a living Tiffany window!
The path into this stunning garden strolls through big trees and down through a valley terraced with iris ponds…
to the huge pond that reflects the Taiko Bridge and trees beyond.
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HITACHI SEASIDE PARK
If you go to Hitachi to see the park’s famous hills of Baby Blue Eyes (which are in full bloom at the same time)…
don’t miss the long trellis of wisteria near the food court…
with its unusual display of many colors on the same trellis, all blooming at once.
And if you don’t have time for an excursion but still want to revel in the purple, there are plenty of gorgeous wisteria right in town. Here are the best places to see wisteria in Tokyo.
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If you could use more flower extravaganzas in your life…
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
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