Chichibu seems to be an endless magic trick where one can feel amazed over and over again. The wonders of this small of the the prefecture neighbouring Tokyo never seem to end. It is an hour and a half drive from Tokyo, yet I spent more than a decade before setting foot in this part of the Saitama prefecture.
The more I explore this region the more I find places to visit. Most of the region is easily accessible and one can find mountains, rivers, parks and quaint little towns that can be covered on a day trip from Tokyo.
Spring in 2024 came late and that worked for us as we sought new places to view Cherry Blossoms. We covered Nagatoro last year, though a bit late and the blossoms were starting to wither by the time we visited the place. A late spring, lingering cold weather meant that the flowers bloomed later than usual.
We found the Hitsujiyama park from the Hanami Walker website and the amazing colours of the park seemed to stand out. A bright sunny weekend in the second week of April was the perfect time to head out to the park.
The drive to Hitsujiyama Park takes one through the Tohoku Expressway, merging into the Kan’etsu Expressway towards Niigata, exiting at the Hanazono JCT towards Chichibu, taking the Nation Route 140 and a few turns at local roads into the park.
We arrived at 09:30, a reasonable hour and finding parking wasn’t difficult. The parking attendants guided us to our spot and the park was a 10 minute walk from the parking.
Cherry Blossom Trees line the walking path on both sides and visitors were stopping to take pictures beneath the trees. We bought tickets priced at 300 Yen and entered the park, relatively uncrowded at this early hour.
The Moss Pink Hill stood out as we entered the park, through the flowers had not fully bloomed. There were patches among the 400,000 plants that are spread around the 17,600 square metres park. Even though a full bloom was another week away the sight was still outstanding.
There are around nine varieties of the the Moss Pink flowers and they were spread around the slopes of the park. An elevated vantage point at the extreme left of the park provided a view of the flower fields, the Buko mountain and the cherry blossom trees lining the path at the far end.
There are benches placed at different parts of the park and the visitor can rest their feet from the ascending and descending paths spread across. There are vantage points of taking pictures every few metres and the visitors lined up, individually and in groups to take pictures.
The far end of the park has a parking and a few sheep in an enclosed area. Hitsujiyama literally translates to ‘Sheep Park’ so the presence of the sheep, grazing peacefully under a Cherry Blossom trees seemed an apt sight for the park.
Food stall were placed behind this enclosed area and the shops sold the normal tourist food along with a few local offerings. One of the shops, was selling what seemed like potatoes but turned out to be ‘Sato Imo’ known as ‘Arbi’ in Hindi and ‘Taro Root’ in English.
A few of the stall sold strawberries, a local speciality and few offered ice creams and drinks in strawberry flavours. The late morning hour was warm and the Sun was out and it was perfect weather to sit on one of the benches overlooking the moss pink hill, pierced the toothpick into the Taro Root as the butter melted , the late spring day seemed glorious!
