Heisei No Mori Park

Japan's longest rose tunnel in obscure town

Kawajima Town, often incorrectly called Kawashima Town due to signage errors by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Road Bureau, is one of a few obscure towns in Saitama Prefecture. Despite being positioned between Kawagoe and Ageo, the lack of a train station (or even a train line running through it), is one of the reasons it is invisible to many. Another reason is it's lack of mainstream tourist attractions. That is why a few years ago when they revamped the only park in the town, they created a tunnel which they claim to be the longest rose tunnel in Japan. Heisei no Mori park is a medium sized park. It has a decent playground for multi-age use. There is also some playground equipment in the centre of the rose tunnel, suited to small children. They have fitness equipment in this area too. Its most popular attraction for families is the wading river they open up to use during the summer. It opens to co-incide with the Rose Festival that happens in May. During the Rose Festival it is open daily, but for a few weeks after that it is only open on weekends until they open it full time for the summer. The wading river is quite beautiful with its stone base and roses back-drop. The park doesn't have gates that close so in essence it is open twenty-four hours a day. One of the parking areas is also open all day every day. The other parking area on the North end closes at night until early morning. Parking is free. The new town hall was opened beside the park earlier this year. You can go up the hall's tower for free and on a clear day can see Mt Fuji.