This beautiful park is a must visit for flower lovers. Not only is it open year round (with special events in May for wisteria and during summer for roses), they also illuminate the flowers at night to create a completely different atmosphere.

Traveler beware: this is a VERY famous park. Expect absurd amounts of traffic during the special events and during Golden Week. My friend and I tried to visit the flowers at night during Golden Week, but the traffic was so bad we couldn’t even get close to the park! When we went the next morning, the crowds were… tolerable. Still a lot of people though. Plan accordingly!

Highlights for me were the wisteria ice cream (they also have wisteria soda!) and a wisteria tree with double blooms. Instead of hanging down like regular wisteria, these blooms grew in something more like clusters that resembled grapes! There are also two huge wisteria trees that are over 100 years old; it was lots of fun to walk underneath all of their blooms.

Gra– flowers!!

This is a giant wall of wisteria. We missed full bloom so it wasn’t quite as impressive as it could’ve been.