Holiday lights still shine in Ashikaga Flower Park

The calendar shows we’re nearing the end of January and that’s exactly why you’d think that all holiday illuminations have been switched off for the year. But in Japan it’s not over yet. In some recent articles we were hunting for holiday lights in Tokyo, this time let’s go a bit further up north to the rural Ashikaga City, about 100 km away from the Japanese capital.

What’s famous about Ashikaga? The Ashikaga Flower Park of course! Here every year in freezing cold weather from November through January people come to enjoy some very impressive illuminations.

If you’re heading there by train from Tokyo, the cheapest and quickest way is to take the Utsunomiya line from Ueno to Oyama, then Ryomo line to Tomita station that’s one stop before Ashikaga. Altogether it will take about an hour and a half. From Tomita it’s only about 800 meters to the flower park which according to Japanese calculations translates to 10 minutes of walk (Japanese scientists have found that 80 meters means 1 minute of walk and that is the standard for measuring walking distance here).

The miniature Tomita station doesn't really give impression there's anything special in this town.

Botanists will be happy that the park is very famous for its wisterias. There are about 160 of them here which are over 60 years old and one reached a respectable age of 100 years. Sellers of fertilizers will be disappointed by the fact that the park buried 260 tonnes of charcoal for composting the soil and purifying the air in an eco-friendly manner.

Now, let’s move on to the illumination masterpieces.

Happy New Year 2010 indeed!

Ponds can look something like this, too.

Modern Venice.