Ashikaga Flower Park

Early last week Clarence, Tung, Mike, and I all toured the Ashikaga Flower Park(a small English blurb from the city's website is here). It was my first time on the grounds since I visited Ashikaga in 2002. While none of us are particularly wild about flower viewing, this was a special occasion.

The most famous attraction at the park, and a top draw for the city of Ashikaga, are the blooming wisteria. Wisteria is a woody vine that features large hanging flowers. The plants located at this place in particular are the largest in Japan, at around 1,990 square meters in width (according to the wikipedia article on the plant here) and are over a hundred years old.

We went on Wednesday, skillfully avoiding the weekend traffic. Several of the teachers at my school mentioned how horrid the crowds are, but this particular sunny day was a nice leisurely experience.

Here are a few wisteria pictures.

This is a small potted version of the giant plants visible at the flower park. Several of them were brought into train stations around town to advertise. I saw brochures about the event as far as Tokyo(the train companies will promote just about anything that involves travel).


Here I am under one of the big wisteria plants. Tung thought that I was the most beautiful flower of them all.


A bee takes advantage of the large mass of flowers.


This shot gives a better idea of the size of the plants. A large trellis holds up what must be the considerable weight of the vines.


I'm not sure if this is the same kind of plant or not. There were several varieties of vines with hanging flowers.

Here are a few more pictures. While much less loved, quite a few other varieties of flowers were in bloom.

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In other news, I finally got my travel plans sorted out. I will be back in the US from August 6-18. Preliminary plans include spending time with loved ones and visiting the Illinois State Fair.