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Story So Many Spring Flowers to Enjoy in April and May By JNTO on 20 February 2020

varieties of spring flowers to show you the true beauty of spring
@写真提供:真岡市観光協会
Japan experiences four seasons and enjoys beautifully blooming flowers between March and May during its spring season.
With the sakura (cherry blossom) as the representative flower of spring, Japan has many varieties of spring flowers to show you the true beauty of spring. In this season of flower blooming, the cute, yellow nanohana is a lovely flower breed to catch sight of. The Japanese plum flower, ume, is also widely mentioned in the ancient Japanese poems of “Manyoshu” as the bringer of spring, as well as the Japanese wisteria, the beautiful pink, white, and purple drooping historically flower. 
The Japanese azalea also blooms from around mid-April to mid-May, and the flowering dogwood can be seen in spring.
While many may visit Japan during the spring in hopes of visiting popular 
Cherry Blossom(sakura) viewing spots, we would like to introduce places where visitors can enjoy various types of spring flowers! 

Cherry Blossom(sakura)

 

Revel in This Otherworldly Field of Yellow Flowers!
SL, Sakura, Nanohana Avenue (Tochigi) and Abukuma Kasenjiki Field (Miyagi)

Yellow Flowers
Nanohana is a member of the mustard family and is often used in Japanese food including tempura and vegetable side dishes. Their vivid yellow petals signal the coming of spring when it starts blooming at around late December (blooming season here ends in February) in Kagoshima’s Ibusu City in the Kyushu region. Moving upward towards the northern Japan, the nanohana season is from early March to April in Fukuoka, from March to April in Honshu’s Kansai and Hokuriku areas, and from late April to May in the Tohoku region.
Steam Locomotive
A particularly famous spot to view these adorable yellow flowers is Mooka City’s “SL (abbreviation of “Steam Locomotive”), Sakura, Nanohana Avenue” in Tochigi prefecture. Every year from late March to early April, visitors can enjoy 10,000 cherry blossom trees and fields of nanohana flowers. This site is especially breathtaking when most of the pink and yellow flowers are at their best. 

Steam Locomotive

On weekends and holidays, you can even see the steam locomotive “SL Mooka” chugging along. On sunny days, the beautiful landscapes of this famous spot are like a scene from movies!
The snowy peaks of Mt. Zao behind a vast field of blooming nanohana flowers in Miyagi's Abukuma Kasenjiki Field(riverbed) is a beautiful sight you will not want to miss. The 2, 500, 000 nanohana flowers blooming across 3.2 hectares of land is truly a sight to behold!

 

Sweet Aroma and Faint Pink Tinge of Japanese Wisteria
Ashikaga Flower Park (Tochigi) and Kawachi Wisteria Garden (Fukuoka)  

Ashikaga Flower Park (Tochigi) and Kawachi Wisteria Garden (Fukuoka)

Japanese wisteria is a flowering vine of the legume family that blooms between around April and mid-May. It is a beloved Japanese flower by the locals since ancient times as its petals hanging down from the branches and blooms in various colours, such as lilac, violet, pink and white.
In particular, the mauve variety of flowers have been cherished as its colour has been associated with nobility since ancient times.

Japanese wisteria flowers
Some popular Japanese wisteria spots you will not want to miss are Tochigi's Ashikaga Flower Park that boasts ancient wisteria trees of age over 150 years that are illuminated at night, as well as Kita-kyushu's (northern Kyushu) Kawachi Wisteria Garden in Fukuoka, named one of “Japan's 31 most beautiful spots” on American broadcaster CNN in 2015.
Kawachi Wisteria Garden is famous for its hanging wisteria gardens, and both 110-metre and 80-metre wisteria tunnels that guests can pass through while being enveloped in the flowers' lovely aroma. 
You will be in awe by the range of over 22 varieties of beautiful, flowering wisteria that hang like amazingly huge curtains from late April to mid-May!
Japanese wisteria flower

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