Escape the crowds at this spectacular hidden “togenkyo”.

Every spring, Japan bursts into bloom, with the cherry blossoms bringing joy to people around the nation. It’s not the only type of flower to unfurl its petals at this time of year though, as peach blossoms bring even more of a vibrant pink to the landscape, and with the trees yet to receive as much worldwide acclaim as the cherries, peach blossom festivals are yet to catch the attention of international tourists, meaning you can enjoy a quieter and less crowded type of flower-viewing.

Escaping the crowds is something that particularly appeals to our reporter Mariko Ohanabatake, so when she found out about a peach blossom festival at Fuefuki City in Yamanashi Prefecture, about 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, she set out for a solo trip on the Kaiji, a limited express train.

The Kaiji and the Azusa (another limited-express train) will get you to the festival from Tokyo, and the view of blossoming peach orchards from the window as you enter the prefecture acts as a tantalising taster for the main event.

As you travel from Yamanashishi Station to Isawa-Onsen Station, the view from the carriage becomes saturated in pink, with the mountain range in the distance also taking on peachy hues.

Isawa-Onsen Station is where you’ll want to get off when visiting the peach blossom festival in Fuefuki, and it’s particularly beautiful around here as the city boasts the largest peach production in Japan.

This is the region where the “Togenkyo Spring Festival” is held, to coincide with the timing of both the peach and cherry blossoms.

“Togenkyo”, which contains the kanji for “peach”, translates to “paradise” or “”Shangri-La“, and refers to an idyllic, hidden world associated with beauty and tranquility.

▼ Paradise is quite a distance from the station, though, as it’ll cost you about 4,000 yen (US$27.86) one-way by taxi to get to the main action, highlighted in pink on the map below.

Mariko hadn’t done much planning before her trip, so she ended up asking staff for flower-viewing recommendations a little closer to the station. That’s when she got wind of a famous peach blossom site that’s easily accessible from the station, and not listed in tourist guides.

According to the pamphlet above, the event is totally free, and the best time for viewing the flowers this year is 15 March to 15 April, with the yellow rape flowers best seen during this period, and the peach blossoms from 1-8 April. That sounded like paradise to Mariko, and all she needed to do to get there was hop on the bus bound for Mt Fuji Station and get off at the “Natsume” bus stop.

She only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus, and after a 15-minute ride, she alighted at Natsume, where she found herself at the Misaka Farm Grape House, on a street lined with fruit farms.

Looking at the official Togenkyo Flower Festival map, this place wasn’t even marked on it, making her feel like she really had stumbled on a hidden gem. Stepping inside, she saw there were peach-picking and grape-picking experiences available, and with souvenir stores and a dining corner on site, it was well set up to receive tour-bus passengers.

As she strolled through the building, she found the sign for the peach and rape flower site, and after speaking to staff, she was guided to the hidden route to paradise.

She walked past a giant “sugidama“, a ball of cedar leaves usually hung from the eaves of sake breweries to indicate the state of alcohol maturity (the sugidama starts out green at the beginning of the season, before naturally fading to brown later in the season), and a stone monument carved with the words “This is the Centre of the Earth“, reportedly quoted by an “alien” .

The words on the stone monument made Mariko feel as if she might be leaving the real world and entering paradise, and as she turned left towards the flowers…

▼ …she felt as if she was stepping into a floral fairyland.

The yellow of the rape flowers stood out against the pink of the peach blossoms, which in turn stood out against the blue of the cloudless sky.

The vibrant colours filled Mariko with a rush of joy, and as she walked along the path that meandered through the trees, it felt like a floral paradise.

The only thing better than the view was the perfume emanating from the flowers — fruity and floral, the peach blossoms had an addictive scent.

Cherry blossoms barely emit any fragrance at all, so the scent was totally captivating. And best of all, there was hardly anyone here, so it was if she had the blooms all to herself.

Strolling through the flowers was like stepping back in time to a pre-tech world of tales, with The Peach Blossom Spring, a classic Chinese tale from the 5th Century, coming to mind. This is where the word “Togenkyo” is said to have originated, in reference to the secluded utopia surrounded by peach trees that was discovered by a fisherman in the story. After leaving, the fisherman attempts to return but can never find the entrance again, so in time, the term came to symbolise an idyllic, otherworldly paradise or utopia, free from worldly troubles.

▼ Surrounded by flowers instead of crowds, Mariko certainly was free from worldly troubles.

The site was so beautiful she could imagine it inspiring poets and artists, and the more she explored the area, the more she didn’t want to leave.

As two women walked by, she could hear one of them remarking, “This truly is the land of paradise“, and it was a sentiment Mariko wholeheartedly agreed with. While cherry blossoms have their charm, the peach blossoms are in a league of their own, being distinctly pinker and more fragrant.

▼ Their underrated, overlooked beauty makes the peach blossoms even more striking and beautiful in Mariko’s eyes.

Mariko’s only complaint was that the photos she took of the flowers didn’t capture just how beautiful they were in real life.

While cherry blossoms bloom in a way that hides many of the tree’s branches, the peach blossoms allow the branches to remain visible, putting them somewhere between sakura and plum in terms of their visual beauty.

Unlike flower-viewing sites in Tokyo, this site gives you a view of snow-capped mountains as “borrowed scenery”.

The site was a truly beautiful hidden gem, and after taking her leave, she was happy to see she could still enjoy the pink paradise from the window of the train as she began her return journey home.

As the train edged closer to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, Mariko closed her eyes to retain the memory of paradise for just a little while longer.

Upon arriving in Tokyo, Mariko went straight from the train to the office, and although she was sad to be back in the concrete jungle, she felt content in the knowledge that she could always close her eyes and escape to paradise whenever she needed a break.

And if she ever wanted to actually step into paradise again, Fuefuki’s secret “togenkyo” was just a 90-minute train ride away. Musing upon her trip from her desk at work, Mariko recalled her surprise at how few people knew about the hidden peach orchard — not only were there barely any foreign tourists in the area, there were very few locals.

So if you’re in Japan at the moment, Mariko highly recommends hopping on the limited express to Fuefuki. It’s at peak blossom until 13 April, so there’s a small window of opportunity to soak up its beauty this year, otherwise you can put it on the list for next year’s flowering season, along with the top sakura site in Kanto.

Related: Misaka Farm Grape House, Fuefuki Sightseeing
Photos ©SoraNews24
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