Great Wisteria Festival, Ashikaga Flower Park

Japan is famous for beautiful Sakura displays during early spring, but did you know there are other beautiful flowers to watch out for during Spring like the Wisteria Festival? Other than the Sakura, Wisteria displays are to look out for.

Famous and beautiful flower display “Wisteria” flower or “Fuji 藤” as it is called in Japanese, usually blooms in Mid April – Mid May (Golden Week Holidays). Yes it looks like a real-life version of blockbuster Avatar’s Tree of Souls!

A must visit garden for Wisteria Festival display is Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi Prefecture (North of Tokyo). Ashikaga Flower Park is open to visitors all year round and most tourists really take on the long commute to visit.

Train Guide to Ashikaga Flower Park

Source : Ashikaga Flower Park Transport/Access

Recommended Route for Ashikaga Flower Park

We recommend this route if you are not on a tight schedule and on a tight budget.

This train route is cheaper compared to taking the Shinkansen for Tochigi.

Cost : 2,290 yen
Travel Time : 1 hr 53 min

Starting point is Ueno Station go to Platform 1, take the train for Minami-kurihashi on the Hibiya Line.

* Stay on board until you get to Minami-Kurihashi station.

From Minami-Kurihashi transfer platform for Tobu-Nikko Line (for Shin-Tochigi), then get off at Tochigi Station

Then from Tochigi Station take the Ryomo Line for Takasaki, get off at Ashikaga Flower Park station.

The garden entrance is about 6 minutes walk from Ashikaga Flower Station .

It took almost 2 hours of travel time from Tokyo which includes 3 transfers to different train lines. A long travel I must say but cheaper ticket cost compared to riding the Shinkansen. You want to arrive at Ashikaga-Flower-Park Station by JR Ryomo Line.

Ashikaga Flower Park Entrance Tickets

Before you can enter the garden, you will need to buy entrance tickets which costs 800 – 1,800 Yen, prices depends on the season display. In my case we visited last week of April, in time for Wisteria Festival, the ticket costs 1,700 Yen. I arrived at around 3 in the afternoon, as we are planning to take good photos of Wisteria Flower illumination. Guys don’t mind going home late because seeing how magical the 150 year old Wisteria can get during night, you won’t regret it.

Upon entering Ashikaga Flower Park I was really amazed by the enormous number of visitors! Just kidding. After purchasing an entrance ticket you can ask or just get a Travel guide on the ticket counters. Don’t worry! Travel guides are also printed in English.

In my opinion the best time to see these Wisteria Flowers is from 4pm onwards. During night display the flowers are highlighted with warm colors that makes the flowers pop in colors. If you are planning to visit Ashikaga Flower park for Wisteria festival we recommend that you go form afternoon until the night display which ends at 9 PM.

Ashikaga Flower Park – Wisteria Festival Illuminations

Of course you shouldn’t miss the foods that are in season. Can you guess what ice cream flavor this is? Yep, you’re right! Wisteria flavored ice cream!

The ice cream is delicious, the Wisteria flavor not too over powering. You can taste just a hint of the flowery Wisteria flavor. It cost us 600 yen for each ice cream. Great snack while waiting for the evening illuminations.