#azalea | Japan Travel Insights by season

Visited Mt Aso in mid-May for new lush green in Kusasenri, along the rim of the giant ancient caldera, and Azaleas. Stayed in onsen hotel for 2 nights (Aso Uchinomaki onsen), fairly close to sightseeing spots in Aso by car.

Though the volcanic level has been raised to level 2 since April, the road up to the Mt Aso ropeway station was open, though ropeway and road further uphill to the crater were closed.

The white fumes rising from Nakadake (Central summit) was quite mild, compared to the black smoke and volcanic ash in Sakurajima (Kagoshima) when we visited in March 2018.

a small colony of Miyama-Kirishima blooming

Komezuka, Nekodake and lush green scenery from observatory decks along the northwestern rim of the ancient caldera along Milk Road.

Azaleas in full bloom in Mount of Longevity garden (長寿ヶ丘公苑のつつじ)

===> Kuju Kogen ====>

Ashikaga Flower Park

On the next day we visited the Ashikaga Flower Park for Fuji (wisteria), also in full bloom, manifested by the fact that the entrance fee was raised to JPY1,800 right on the day we visited.

Took Tohoku Shinkansen to Oyama and changed JR Ryomo local train to Ashikaga Flower Park station, which was newly opened in April. Though it was a Friday, we had to stand on the local train on both ways for 30min each due to huge crowds.

Fuji flowers can be in purple, pink, white and yellow. The last two varieties are late bloomers. While the purple and pink ones were in full bloom, the white Fuji were starting to bloom when we visited.

In the featuring photo is the big Fuji tree of 150 years old with a large span. Apart from small flower petals it also emitted a pleasant scent which attracted bees.

Sea of Azaleas and others

Apart from Fuji the sea of Tsutsuji (Azaleas) were blooming at the same time. As these were in red, pink and white it formed a colourful palette with the purple and pink Fuji.

During the weekend we visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. It happened that the masterpieces of French landscape paintings from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow were on special exhibition till July.

We also dropped by the new Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, which attracted huge crowds to line up. It’s smaller than its sister Midtown premise in Roppongi. We did not stay long and headed off to Omotesando for cake and coffee.