Oga lotus flowers at Chiba Park

Rainy season certainly brings a lot of rain to Japan, and along with the cool, misty humidity comes a great deal of plantlife. One flower that does particularly well in the early summer is the oga lotus flower, and one of my city’s more famous parks holds a festival to celebrate it.

Chiba Koen (千葉公園, Chiba Park) is located in the center of Chiba City. The Oga Lotus Festival kicks into action when the lotus flowers start to bloom, typically sometime in June with their peak in late June and early July, i.e. in rainy season. The park’s website tracks the specific number of flowers in bloom and while the festival doesn’t seem to have a specific start or end, the timing of it seems to correlate with the number of flowers and that, consequently, is when the highest number of visitors arrive.

The oga lotuses are, of course, the stars of the show. Named after Doctor Oga, a paleobotanist who discovered some 2000 year old lotus seeds in ancient ruins in nearby Kemigawa in the 1950s. From these, the oga lotuses were germinated and these days, they are widespread in Japan. Given they were discovered in Chiba, Chiba City is particularly passionate about them!

As well as being ancient, the oga lotuses are very pretty! At Chiba Koen, they cover a pond of their own. By the time they are blooming, they are very tall; when we visited, they loomed over my three year old! There are paths lacing between them and while a number of them are best taken on foot, it is possible to maneuver something with wheels as well.

We went on a weekday and while it wasn’t overcrowded, there were still quite a few people there, many of them elderly and many of them lugging cameras and tripods. There are a couple of permanent cafes in the park and there were also a number of market stalls set up to cater for the influx of visitors, lending something of a festival atmosphere to the whole event. There were even some cute lotus flower souvenirs available. 

I don’t think there’s enough to do in the park to make it a full day trip, but it makes for a nice morning or afternoon outing that would suit a variety of ages. Mornings are particularly recommended as this is when the flowers are blooming at their best. In addition to the lotus flower festival, there’s quite a lot of other stuff at Chiba Park. There’s lots of greenery and other beautiful examples of flora to see, a decent-sized playground, a swimming pool, and a sports field. The main lake/pond also has duck boats that you can hire and pedal around in, and the park is walking distance to a shrine and to the Chuo branch of Chiba City Library. The park even offers a particularly excellent view of the monorail if trains and/or particularly Chiba-esque symbols are your thing!

Access

Chiba Koen (park) is about a ten minute walk from JR Chiba Station. There is a bit of a slope involved, though, and if you don’t fancy that in the rain and/or the humidity, you could try accessing the park form Chiba Koen station on the Chiba monorail line. It’s one station up from Chiba station on the line going towards Dobutsukoen or Chishirodai. Getting off at Chiba Koen will almost put you directly in the park itself, but the park isn’t small and you will still have to walk a bit to get back to the pond with the oga lotus flowers. Entrance to the park is free of charge.