Japan may be best known for its cherry blossoms, but the country’s wisteria gardens are just as beautiful. A particular famous spot is the wisteria tunnel at the Kawachi Fuji Garden in Kitakyushu, about six hours away from Tokyo. This private garden is a popular place to view these fairy-tale-like trees whose cascading tresses of flowers range from white to pale blue and purple. The garden is open to public during wisteria season from end April to early May. Due to crowd control during peak season, advance reservations are required to enter the garden.

Another place to see these flowers is in the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi Prefecture – about 90 minutes from Tokyo. This park is home to lots of blue, white and pink wisteria. Look out for a 100-year-old wisteria tree with blue flowers and a long tunnel of white wisteria flowers. The flowers here are usually in full bloom at the start of May.

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Japan’s tulip season happens from late April to early May. The town of Tonami Toyama Prefecture is a leading producer of tulip bulbs in the country.

For visitors, Tonami Tulip Park is one of the most famous places in Japan to see the these stunning flowrs – we’re talking about three million bulbs of 300 varieties. Look out for the Valley of Flowers, a 30m corridor of 4m high tulips. The 2023 Tonami Tulip fair takes place here from April 22 to May 5. During this period, free shuttle buses will connect the Tonami Tulip Park with JR Tonami Station. This place is around eight hours from Tokyo.

For something closer to the capital, you can visit the Sakura Furusato Hiroba in Chiba Prefecture, which also has a beautiful showcase of colourful tulips.

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The famous Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki Prefecture is blanketed with nemophila flowers (also called baby blue eyes) from late April to mid-May. There are four to five million pretty light blue blooms planted around the hills and fields – reminiscent of a blue ocean. Located about two hours from Tokyo in the city of Hitachinaka, the park faces the Pacific Ocean.

In springtime, the area is also home to bright yellow narcissuses and multi-coloured tulips. In autumn, the area is cloaked in bright red thanks to round kochia plants (think: fluffy round flowers in Dr Seuss’ The Lorax). If you are there in early summer, you’ll see poppies and roses.

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