Annual event in Fuji Five Lakes area offers one of the most beautiful views of the symbol of Japan.

Some people will tell you that if you want to see Mt. Fuji, the best time to go is in the winter, when the weather is most likely to be sunny and clear. Alternatively, if you want to climb Mt Fuji, you’ll want to wait until summer, when the hiking trails are open.

But there’s also a great reason to plan your Fuji trip for spring, because that’s when you can catch a view of both Japan’s tallest mountain and one of its most beautiful flower fields.

Every year, a 15,000-square meter (161,459-square foot) area of Yamanashi Prefecture’s Fuji Motosuko Resort, located near Lake Motosu (one of the Fuji Five Lakes), turns a brilliant purplish pink as some 500,000 flowers come into bloom. In English, the flowers are called moss phlox, but their incredible beauty is more evocatively conveyed by their Japanese name, shibazakura, or “field cherry blossoms.”

While the viewing window for regular sakura is painfully short, shibazakura linger in bloom for much longer. This year’s Fuji Motosuko Resort Shibazakura Festival started on April 12 and runs until May 25. It’s about three hours total from Tokyo to the venue, (approximately two hours by train to Kawaguchiko Station and then 50 minutes from there by bus to Fuji Motosuko Resort, so it’s doable as a day trip from the capital if you get up, or even if you sleep in a little bit, since the flower field is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

During the festival a number of photo spots are set up, and while supplies last visitors will be given a cut-out art card that turns the shibazakura into a fashionable dress to take clever snapshots with.

Adult admission prices range from 1,000 to 1,300 yen (US$6.90 to US$9) depending on date, but discounted tickets are available by reservation through the Fuji Motosuko Resort website here.

Location information
Fuji Motosuko Resort / 富士本栖湖リゾート
Address: Yamanashi-ken, Minamitsuru-gun, Fuji Kawaguchiko Motosu 212
山梨県南都留郡富士河口湖町本栖212
Website

Source, images: PR Times
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