The weather on the long weekend that kicked off Golden Week was supposed to be sunny and 27 C in Tonami, Toyama, when I checked on Wednesday. By Friday night, Saturday’s weather was supposed to be sunny and 22 C. Imagine my surprise, then, when I woke up to the sound of rain at 9 am on Saturday.
Undeterred by the weather, my friend and I headed out to Tonami, Toyama for the Tulip Fair.
The rain didn’t let up on the drive, but, armed with my boots and umbrella, I was determined to enjoy the flowers.
Although we had to duck inside the museum and other buildings a few times, I was not disappointed. I had no idea that there were so much varieties of tulips, or that tulip cultivation originally started in Turkey.
Foxtrot variety
The Tonami Tulip Garden (砺波チューリップ公園) has these lovely water wheels. 気に入った～
The day improved around 3 pm, when the pouring rain stopped and the weather settled on “cloudy.”
Loved the reflection in the water.
And who could be sad about a rainy day when there was tulip ice cream? It was delicious. It’s hard to describe the flavor, but it was sort of like rose ice cream–a delicious floral flavor.
This post is an entry for the 2011 Special Edition of J∙Festa as the most popular article on this site in 2011.
The flowers are so Dutch.
The weather is so English.
The ice cream flavour is so Japanese! Ha…
Have you tried their soya sauce ice cream before?!
That really takes the biscuit!
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I’ve tried ice cream with a soy-sauce-based sauce before, but never soy-sauce flavored ice cream. Would definitely try it! 😀
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Tulips are my absolute FAVORITE flower — thank you so much for sharing these amazing photos!
🙂
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Thank you for the comment! I had no idea there were so many varieties–much more exciting than the red and yellow ones I grew up with!
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Surrounded by beautiful flowers and sweet ice cream…sounds like a great day to me! Love the photos. : )
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It would have been even better without the torrential downpour, but ice cream improves everything 😉
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Tulips are my favourite flower. They are easy to grow and never fail (in my yard at least) to put on a wonderful show every spring!
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The Tulip Fair had some of the bulbs for sale, but I don’t have a proper yard yet. Looking forward to growing some of these some day!
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Wow, i like tulips, because they’re “TWO LiPS” 😀
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Tulips are my favorite flowers! This looks beautiful! Great post, and thanks for sharing!
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You’re very welcome, and thank you for visiting!
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Beautiful photos! Before reading this book, i never thought that the budget of a country might depend on a flower bulb!
http://www.amazon.com/Tulip-Anna-Pavord/dp/1582340137
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Thanks for the link! I didn’t know about the historical significance of the tulip until I went to the fair. Definitely something I’d like to read more about!
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Lovely 🙂 I’ve always wanted to visit Japan for the cherry blossoms and then i see this …great post.
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Japan is gorgeous in every season: narcissus in the winter in the warmer parts; plums and cherries in the spring; azaleas and hydrangeas in the summer; maple in the fall… I hope you’ll check out some of my other photography posts! Thanks for commenting!
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I am coming to Tokyo in a few weeks and love festivals like this. Any suggestions for good ways to find about these things?
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Of course! I find that a lot of city and prefecture websites have great information on events, and many of the big cities like Tokyo and Osaka have good English sites, too. I recommend starting at the Japanese National Tourism Organization (JNTO) and Tokyo Tourism’s site. Enjoy your visit!
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Aw, I love tulips. I once brought some back to Canada for my mothers garden, they still bloom today. Congrats on Freshly Pressed.
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Thanks for the comment! I checked out your blog, btw–Italy was/is my second great love after Japan. I considered a major in classics. 🙂
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Very nice flowers.
http://cmgardening.wordpress.com
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all the best posts say almost the entire story with photos in my view. Goorgeous and thanks for sharing.
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You’re welcome, and thanks for visiting!
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I’m from Iowa, and in a small town called Pella, they have an annual tulip festival that I guess is pretty cool. I haven’t ever been, but need to make the trip!
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Definitely! I used to live in Michigan, and I never did make it out to the Holland, MI, tulip festival. (The beer at the New Holland Brewery, however, is amazing…) Thanks for the comment!
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Oh ho, tulip ice cream! Do want. I still swear by sakura ice cream and jasmine green tea kitkats, but tulip ice cream could woo me away, I bet!
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You should check out my food blog! I blog about kitkats and ice cream in Japan sometimes! I also love sakura ice cream.
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The photos are beautiful! Love the reflection too! 🙂 Congrats on being freshly pressed!
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Thank you, and thanks for visiting!
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So amazing photos! great post.
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Thank you!
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Flowers and ice cream…sounds like a good day to me. 🙂
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Many of my travels in Japan involve the flower-ice cream duo! XD Thanks for the comment!
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My grandmother would have died—she collected tulips and gardened them. Never could she have imagined the tulips there! Thanks for sharing. Great pictures.
Great post! Keep it up.
Jordan
View my latest post here
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Thank you for the comment! I had no idea there were so many varieties of tulips or that they were grown in so many places before I went to this fair. Very interesting stuff.
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interesting post – I love tulips
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Thanks for reading!
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I love tulip so so so much! but unfortunately i cannot yet see them directly til now… 😦 *but i hope it’ll come true someday! 🙂
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Thanks for reading, and I hope you get to see some tulips soon!
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your picture,,,, is the best…!!!!
I like it…!!!!
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Fabulous – you’ve really reflected the Japanese love of nature.
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What I really love about Japan is the consciousness of the local and the value that is placed on experiencing, eating, or seeing things that are famous in or unique to an area. This, of course, is the charm of traveling in Japan, but the appreciation for events like World Expos and tulip fairs is also quite strong here.
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🙂 That’s adorable. When I first started painting as a little girl, I used to always paint tulips and only tulips. I think until like 5th grade, I painted tulips for every painting competition that I had! I would have loved the Tonami Tulip Fair!
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I had a similar obsession with Faberge eggs for some reason–I spent most of kindergarten drawing designs for eggs, and probably had so many that the emperors of Russia would have been jealous. I’m still learning about flowers, though, but I guess most kids obsess about certain subjects in their art! Thanks for sharing your story. 🙂
Incidentally, there is a very nice tulip bed in Fukushima City’s Hanayama park. If I ever make it back to Tohoku, I would love to see it again.
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a nice blog indeed..
beautifully crafted..
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Very pretty….
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Beautiful flowers which I probably wouldn’t have the chance to see so soon. Thanks for the pictures!!
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You’re welcome, and thanks for reading!
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Goodness i need to move somewhere more interesting! These photos are beautiful, i love all of the water elements in the garden. I never knew the varieties of tulips before either, i got excited last spring when i one with distinct multiple colors!
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I had no idea tulips were so interesting either! Some of the non-American varieties were really interesting, too. I also liked the water garden. Thanks for reading!
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Nice! Those tulips look beautiful! I used to like tulips (thanks to the tulip pattern on my curtains). And I’d love to try that tulip ice cream… yum yum. 😛
Congratz on being FP-ed!
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Thank you! I really enjoyed seeing all the unusual tulips, and the ice cream was delicious.
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Very cool! The Tulips look beautiful and it is a great time of the year in Japan.
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Thank you for commenting! I was really surprised at how many varieties of tulips there were and about the pre-Holland history of tulips. It’s a fun festival if you make it out to Hokuriku.
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