Last Wednesday, after the third attempt of waking up early, Jaz and I finally met up in Harajuku. We were actually planning to go to an illumination in Tochigi on Monday but couldn't wake up, so we moved it to Tuesday and still couldn't get up. So we finally got our asses up and went on Wednesday.
I met her in Harajuku to get some coffee since we were both zombified, and checked the train routes to go to Ashikaga Flower Park but most of the trains were delayed so we decided to get something to eat while waiting. We went to get pancakes in Daikanyama which was pretty good. I'm still not a big fan of pancakes, though. We wasted some more time till it was about 5 and finally took the train to Tochigi.
It took over 2 hours to get to Tochigi, so we were both pretty bored on the train. After arriving at Tomita Station, we still had to walk for another good 15 minutes before getting to the illumination.
Ashikaga Flower Park was bigger than I expected it to be. There were a lot of flowers for sale at the entrance, luckily I brought my mask along because I am deadly allergic to flowers.
This illumination wasn't that impressive though I give them points for photo opportunities they built in but the lines were too long. I would say that the designs here were made to attract children. Jaz and I felt a little out of place but it was still fun. The nice part about Ashikaga Flower Park's lights is that some of them are animated, so it was pretty fun to watch but still, aimed towards children. I still prefer Sagamiko's illumination, and compared to that, Nabano No Sato is still the best one.
The flower garden was probably the best part of this illumination, they had some lights that created glass stain art which reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. The lights of these flowers also change color every 5 seconds, so you can watch from red to pink to blue to yellow to green.
We didn't spend too long there, it took us only an hour to complete the whole park because even though it was big, there were not many interesting things to take photos of. The designs were simple and I was pretty bored actually. If you're in Tokyo, I recommend going to Sagamiko's illumination, it's more worthwhile. Also, it wasn't worth the two hours train ride to get to. I think it's much better as a flower park which I don't think I'll go to because Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki looks more impressive.
We couldn't do much after leaving the park since it takes us 2 hours to get back to Shibuya and another hour for me to get back home. Also, by the time I got home, I was starving. I was glad to be out of Tokyo for a little while though, I love this crazy city but I need a break from it as well. Jaz also agreed.
Talking about illuminations, I found an illumination that might give Nabano No Sato competition. Maybe this year I'll head out to Kobe for Kobe Luminarie. I want to start exploring Japan again this year, it'll be nice to see other parts of Japan again.
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