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Posted: April 1
Spring Flower Tour – Kyotango
With spring just around the corner and the cherry blossoms just starting to bud, now seems like the perfect time to introduce the many ‘flowerful’ sites to enjoy in Kyotango, with our spring flower tour.
A Spring Flower Tour
While most of the locations on this tour have been introduced in other pages of this blog, this quick reference guide will bring them all together in one convenient place. Although links have been included to the original posts if you want a more detailed read.
Hanago Okada
The first on our list is Hanago Okada. This flower park covers 75,000 square meters and is in the lovely Yuhigaura area. There are three major draws to the park, each flowering in succession, tulips, wisteria, and finally roses But they don’t flower on their own, each is accompanied by lots of other plants in various stages of blooming.
Tulips are first, usually flowering in mid April while some of the cherry blossoms are still in bloom.
Next we have the wisteria. The wisteria tunnel is about 300 meters long, and is in flower in the first half of May. There is also a picnic area with a wisteria trellis overhead.
Roses round out the Hanago Okada experience flowering from late May to mid-June. There are lots of little corners set up for a romantic picnic for two here.
Kani Ichiban Rose Garden
The Kani Ichiban souvenir shop has a rose garden and strawberry picking just around the back. Flowering from mid May to mid June there is a little overlap with the strawberry picking season. This is a great spot to get your fill of roses and do some souvenir shopping at the same time.
Nyoi-Ji “Flower” Temple
Next we have Nyoi-Ji Temple. As one of the Kansai 25 flower temples Nyoi-Ji is famous for it’s blooms, and always has something flowering throughout the year. However, the main draw is the three-leaved azaleas. These blossom in April around the same time as the cherry blossoms. As the temple features both it makes it an easy choice for a spring destination.
The south facing hillside of this temple is covered with three-leaved azaleas and there is a flower walk you can take along the hillside to get up close with the flowers. From there you can get a great view out over the temple precinct too.
Higashi Yama Park
Like Nyoiji Temple, Higashi Yama Park also looks out over Kumihama Bay, and is filled with three-leaved azaleas. However this park is more appropriate for a spring picnic, with tables and benches set up so you can enjoy lovely flowers, a great view, and tasty food all at once.
Cherry Blossoms
No spring flower tour in Japan would be complete without the cherry blossoms. One of Japan’s most famous symbols is this light pink blossom, and Kyotango is not short on great sites to see them. Below are just a few of the hightlights.
Tango Matsushima combines a stunning coastline dotted with pine tree islands with an generous showing of cherry blossoms.
Lake Hanare has a promenade lined with cherry blossoms. A local group strings lanterns between the trees giving it a magical feel at night.
Deep in the hills, Tennyo no Sato is surrounded by nature, and has a stunning display of cherry blossoms all along the river next to it. It’s a great site for a picnic.
Lake Hanare Hydrangea
The end of the spring flower tour brings us to the end of spring with the Lake Hanare hydrangeas. Usually considered more of a summer flower they are being included here as they are best viewed in the rainy season between spring and summer.
The south-west side of Lake Hanare is one of the best spots in Kyotango for viewing them.
While there are lots of flowers in bloom all year round, this spring flower tour makes the best of the season for finding flowers.
