Tsutsujigaoka park in Gunma, Japan

Tsutsujigaoka Park Azelea Festival

つつじが岡公園つつじまつり

There are 800-year-old Azaleas (=Rhododendron kaempferi)

 and gigantic trees of Azaleas in Tsutsujigaoka park.
Azaleas (=Tsutsuji in Japanese).

Each type of Azalea has each bloom time.

 

Pink Azeleas was full bloom.

The bloom of Red Azeleas was a bit later than pink one.

 

We could see cherry blossoms along the river.

racoon dog statues near the entrace of the park.

Pon chan

(a racoon dog mascot of Tatebayashi city)

Episode of Tsutsujigaoka park

Tomo&Chouchou went to day trip tour to go to Tsutsujigaoka park in Tatebayashi city in Gunma.

In Tsutsujigaoka park, there are 800-year-old Azaleas (=Rhododendron kaempferi) and gigantic trees of Azaleas which has 5m in height. Azaleas (=Tsutsuji in Japanese) in Tsutsujigaoka park have been kept naturally since 800 years ago, so they are very valuable. It's said that Azaleas in Tsutsujigaoka park is the best in Japan and they could be the best in the world.

We must follow the walking path to see Azaleas in the park. There are around 50 kinds and 10,000 bushes of Azaleas in the park. There are several types of Azaleas which are red, pink, white etc.. Each type of Azaleas has each bloom time. So we couldn't see full bloom of all Azeleas. When we went there, pink Azeleas were well bloomed.
Tsutsujigaoka park has 49,890m² so it's very large. The river runs beside the park. We could walk along the river. In the park, we could see cherry blossoms too. We could walk under the cherry blossoms in the park.

Tatebayashi [館林] is famous for Japanese folktale "Bunbuku Chagama [分福茶釜]" so we can see raccoon dog statue near the entrance of the park. Also, we found the sign of mascot of Tatebayashi city called "Pon chan" in the park.
Pon chan wears Azalea on the head and its body is made by Chagama (=tea kettle). It was cute.
Near the entrance of Tsutsujigaoka park, there are many souvenir shops. So before the departure, we shopped some local products as a souvenir.
We can often see Azeleas in Japan. But we had never seen such a big Azelea tree! Moreover it was natural one. After knowing that Tsutsujigaoka park has 800 years history, we could appreciate Azeleas more.


Information
Tsutsujigaoka Park
群馬県立つつじが岡公園

Address: 3128-5 Hanayamacho, Tatebayashi, Gunma
所在地： 群馬県館林市花山町3128-5

Access
Get off at "Tatebayashi" station of Tobu Isesaki Line [東武伊勢崎線館林駅].
↓ after getting off, choose one from the following way.
A) on foot  30 - 40 minutes
B)by local bus Tatebayashi/Itakura line [館林・板倉線]
   get off at "Tsutsujigaoka Koen Iriguchi [つつじが岡公園入口]" and walk around 12min.
C)by shuttle bus  (it runs only during Tsutsuji/Azalea festival)
D)by taxi around 10minutes
Azalea/Tsutsuji Bloom time: from mid. April to beg. May


other articles about seasonal flower events

-> Moss Phlox in Ota, Gunma

-> Osaka　Tsurumi Ryokuchi [Park], Osaka

-> suburb of Paris　Parc de Sceaux, France

-> Ottawa in Canada Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa