Flowers flowers flowers

I love flowers. Big one, little ones, smelly and fragrant ones, or just visually pleasing, they are are wonderful. So i love the phrase “April showers brings May flowers”. This almost always means that the in beginning of May, Japan is covered in blooms. They spring up from the ground, on trees, and all over bushes and shrubbery. If you are anything like me, then just walking around enjoying the neighborhood’s blooming gardens and front yards can be a pleasure. So when my friend invited me to Tatebayashi to go see the Azalea festival, I was thrilled. I’ve been to Ashikaga Flower park during the high season. The wisteria that Ashikaga is so famous far was in full bloom and the entire area was drenched in its sweet aroma. But the price for the entrance into the park during the peak was more than this mother of three is willing to pay currently.Not that I minded the time that I did go, but there are just things now more important than wisteria, like school fees that need to be paid. After enthusiastically committing to this trip to the town over for flowers, I began to worry about the price to get in. Admittedly the 620 yen seems like nothing to Ashikaga’s 1700 yen fee I had paid, but I could easily get two coffees for that. Also, when the azaleas aren’t in season, the park is free to enter as you please. Then the most brilliant information came around through the grapevine. If you get into the park before 8 in the morning when the festival begins, you don’t need to pay the fee and you can spend as much time as you like strolling around and enjoying the day’s events. All that we needed to do was get to the park in time. And, my wonderful friend who invited me also offered to save even more money by not taking the train. We would be biking an hour over in the morning sunshine. But an hour biking felt like nothing compared to the rest of my golden week. In total, this last spurt of vacation time biking ended with me having clocked in over 100 kilometers in less than a week. It was also the first time in a long time that I didn’t take my son with me. I really enjoyed this teeny vacation in my holiday. It had flowers, Friends, and food. It was simple to get into the park, we just walked in right past the workers setting up the entrances to take money for the entrance. The flowers were lovely. Azaleas are really great because they come in such a variety of colors. There was even a small wisteria vine. 

In the western end of the park you will find a few shops that have souviners and snack foods. They even had salted fish skewers. 

yummy or creepy, can't be too sure. Because it is a festival, we also saw a stage set up for music and a fun jump, the inflatable bouncy funhouse for kids. tired from our bike ride, we ended up leaving before the band started, but heard a song or two on our way out. I think next year, I'll definitely take my son. He liked the looks of it form the pamphlet. 

And I'm certainly willing to pay the entrance fee to get us in as well. Just gotta save up that 620 yen.