Ashikaga Flower Park: English

Hey! This post was a long time in coming! In March, part of my family came from Oklahoma to visit me and sister.  In April she and I took advantage of our spring breaks to travel to South Korea for 9 days and then to Kyoto for a weekend to see the sakura, Japan's world-famous cherry blossoms. Sakura season was beautiful, magical! Words can't describe the ephemeral beauty, and as ephemeral things do, both sakura season and spring break slipped away...but not to worry! The first week of of May (Golden Week in Japan) ushered in wisteria season! I went with my host parents to Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi prefecture the Monday after Golden Week. This park is world-famous, and I can see why! In bloom were purple wisteria, white wisteria, light pink wisteria, double-petal wisteria, wisteria walls, and many, many types of other flowers and flowering trees. And of course, a stop at the gift shop revealed all manner of wisteria-colored, scented, and flavored goods. (If you haven't smelled it before, wisteria has a distinct scent that once you get used to it is rather entrancing).

Those were two beautiful hours spent in that garden, despite the heat (hot as it was, there were dozens of gardeners dressed in charming yet practical outfits, hard at work)–and as I left, I felt like I was leaving Wonderland–perhaps I was!