Wisteria and then some

Last year, a friend was saying that she wanted to go to the Ashikaga Flower Park to see the 150-year-old wisteria. When I saw that my wisteria started to bloom, I sent her a message asking if she'd like to go. She suggested to go on a weekday to avoid the crowds, so I took a day off on Wednesday. She came to pick me up at the station and off we went.

She was telling me how the navigation system in her car is old so some of the new roads might not be shown, so I opened up Google Maps on my phone as a backup. When I first plugged in the destination, the app was telling me that it'll take almost 4 hours. We were both like, wait, is traffic that bad? Then I remembered that I have my map set to avoid toll roads. Changed the settings, and then the map said it'll take 2 hours. Whew! Crisis averted. LOL Now the thing with Google Maps is that it'll give you the shortest/fastest route, which means it can lead you through the narrow back roads and fields. That's an adventure in itself. We mostly kept with the nav in the car. It got us to the park in one piece.

I did mention that we went on a weekday to avoid the crowds, right? Man, were we wrong! There were a lot of people at the park, minus kids. Guess that was a bonus. School field trips would've been over by the time we got there in the late afternoon anyway. She was saying that when she went the last time (like, over a decade ago) there weren't as many people on a weekday. If there were that many people out on a weekday, I'd hate to imagine how crowded it would get on a weekend. The last time I was at this park, it was in the dead of winter. No flowers, but I went for the lights display. It was challenging to capture the wisteria with as few people in the background as possible. I did try.

The wisteria were stunning! There are over 350 wisteria in pink, white, yellow, and purple, giving off a pleasant fragrance as you walk by. Of course, there were no unruly vines running rampant (like my wisteria at home). They were maintained for maximum effect. What was breathtaking was the huge canopy of wisteria from two 160-year-old vines dangling from an overhead trellis. They looked more like trees than vines since the trunks were so wide! I was awed by the wall of wisteria. There was a wall of purple wisteria and a wall of white wisteria. What added to the beauty was the reflection of the wisteria in the water. We were oohing and ahhing as we passed by the impressive wisteria displays.

Being a flower park, there were other flowers blooming--calla lilies, baby blue eyes, multi-petal cherry blossoms (still hanging in there), petunias, delphiniums, poppies, dove tree flowers, azaleas, rhododendrons, Japanese bigleaf magnolia, dogwood, Japanese snowballs, clematis. There were even resident koi, ducks, and a grey heron at the ponds. Some rhododendrons looked like orchids and hibiscus. Petunias placed like checkerboards were cute, too.

While the wisteria were stunning in daylight, the nighttime light up gives off an ethereal effect. Many people come to the park to see the wisteria after dark. There were parts of the park that seem more crowded after dark that in the late afternoon.

The souvenir shop was fun to browse around in. There was a nursery outside (of course, being a flower park). For some reason, there was a gargoyle perched on a shelf. Wasn't expecting to see that in a nursery. There were a bunch of frog figurines, too. Collectors would go nuts. The Mt. Fuji one was really cute. I got some cookies to take to the office and a cute sake cup (they didn't have shot glasses I liked) for myself.

Now before you ask, yes, I had ice cream. The flower park had an original wisteria soft serve ice cream. It gave off a light scent of wisteria, but mostly tasted of vanilla. It was refreshing. It hit the spot til dinner. Since the restaurants in the park were jam-packed with lines of people waiting to be seated outside, we decided to find a place to eat after we left the park, which we did find a cheap Italian chain restaurant. The food wasn't that bad, either. We had our main dish, salad, soup, soft drink bar and only paid about $25 for the entire meal. They had little robot carriers bringing our food. It was so cute. I liked this place than the chain we have near us. While I prefer to support local businesses, there are a few chains that I will go to in a pinch.

Maybe next year, we'll leave early so we can stop by some roadside markets. These markets are usually fun to browse around in and find little treats.

I didn't think things through when I took a mid-week PTO. I should've done it on a day where I'll be working from home the next day. I was soooo dead at work the next day. Lesson learned. LOL

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