Japanese Culture in New York - Chopsticks NY

Japanese people’s love for flower has something to do with their love for seasonal distinction, and spring is certainly the highest season to appreciate floral air. Cherry blossoms are must see in spring, but Japan’s spring has much more than that.  Find more amazing spring beauty throughout the country.

Lavender Carpet in Hokkaido
In the northern island Hokkaido, its vast open land can be the canvas of flowers.  Lavenders in Biei and Furano areas in the southern Hokkaido are the symbol of Hokkadio’s late spring from mid June.  Running from the town of Biei through Furano, the Route 237 is known as the flower path of Hokkaido because of the flower fields one after another.  The highlight of the view along this path is the fields carpeted with purple lavender:  Several local lavender farms along the Route 237 grow flowers year around, and the Route is populated with visitors looking out of the car window for breathtaking colorful ground stretching out to the horizon with different flowers in different time of the year.  Among all other flowers cultivated in Hokkaido’s vast flat land, lavenders are the most popular for its aroma and the purple colors shined in the spring light.

Clover Hills in Chichibu
Take Seibu Train from Ikebukuro in downtown Tokyo, and you will be in the perfect hiking daytrip area of Chichibu.  From mid April to mid May, Chichibu’s rolling hills are filled with moss phlox, small clover like flowers.  These small clovers are called “lawn cherry” in Japanese because of the beautiful flowers crawling very low, and they flock in about 8,000 square meters (1.9 acres), where six breeds are planted in several shapes as if a large watercolor painting is laid on the hillside.   The hill sides are usually a hiking destination for the panoramic view of Chichibu City, but after the regular ephemeral cherry blossom season quickly ends, the clovers start blossoming in unison, coloring the vast area of the quiet sheep hills.  It is worth taking more of the steep hiking path up to the summit of Mount Buko-san once you see the breathtaking view of the clover covered lower land.  The pink rolling hill is just within the day-trip destination from Tokyo.

Japan’s Tulip Village
Tulips are one of the most popular spring flowers, and because of the geographic characteristics of large flat lands with watered fields, Tonami city is the major tulip manufacturing region.  Tonami city’s Tulip Fair displays 1 million tulips in 450 breeds in the 17 acres of the Tulip Park from April 23 through May 6.  The tulips in different colors form an art figure every year, and this year’s event exhibits “the tulip kaleidoscope.”  Tonami City is in Toyama Prefecture, which is about 620km northwest  from Tokyo.

Tokyo Marunouchi Flower Weeks 2009
The capital city Tokyo is like a concrete jungle, but the city always finds the way to enjoy the blossoming season.  In Marunouchi area, the north side of Tokyo station gathers the flowers in the top season from all over the country to this capital’s center.  This event first came to this Tokyo’s hub station neighborhood just last year to showcase the cohabitation of beautiful flowers and city life, and this year again will attract office workers from this busy office area, tourists and artists looking for interaction with nature in the midst of the urban life, seasonal beauty and the recognition to the ecological importance.  Marunouchi has been the center of Tokyo for decades, and has recently been attracting many large international corporations for their office location.  The Flower Weeks showcase the examples of new city style with the nature in this hyper-modern urban space.  The magic of flowers turns a shiny office building into a flagrant floral promenade and sets up an enormous wisteria forest in a plaza.  Don’t miss the “Flower of the Year” contest among 3,000 plus new flower breeds from Japan.  The event takes place from April 21 to 26.

——– Nori Akashi : Public Relations Manager at the New York Office of JNTO

Japan National Tourism Organization New York Office
One Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1250, New York, NY 10020
TEL: 212-757-5640  www.japantravelinfo.com