Not Netherlands : Sakura Tulip Festa in Chiba Prefecture

Well I travel a lot, but noooo am not in Netherlands…. introducing the Sakura Tulip Festa organised by the Sakura City Municipal Organisation in the Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo. Endless red, yellow and all the other coloured tulips you can dream of with a beautiful windmill backdrop giving it a European experience for you and your family. Tokyo has really got it all…..right?
Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaLets start with the location. If you have travelled on a Keisei Line train to Narita, you must have seen green fields on the way and must have encountered a station called Sakura. Not it is not the Sakura as in Cherry blossoms, but the kanji characters are 佐倉. The Sakura Tulip Festa is held at this station, you can check the Google Map Herefrom the Keisei-Sakura Station, take the North Exit and jump on to the 100 yen  city bus. Every year the flowers bloom when the cherry blossoms wind down in the spring, meaning second week of April is the best time to visit the farms. Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaNext to the tulip farms on one end is Lake Inba and other side is the Keikyu Line. Trains run every five minutes and they offer a nice background for the tulips… Yellow coloured tulips and the Keikyu Line. I just waved a hand unconsciously, small things like these make us happy … yeah? Hopefully someone did see me and waved back too!!…Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaOther than the tulips I am surprised at the effort the Sakura City has made to re-create the Dutch experience. The windmill De Liefde is the first wind powered water pump in Japan! The windmill is apparently made in Netherlands, but was assembled here in Chiba and the wind energy helps draw water from Lake Inba and help irrigate the farms of tulips. You can access it and go inside to take a view of what a windmill like that looks from the inside.Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaAs I said earlier, every few minutes a train passes by and here comes one more… The large swathes of the tulips with the color variations they have put up is indeed special and I think this farm, the Sakura Tulip Festa should be more popular than the Showa Kinen Koen which is popular destination in Tokyo to enjoy tulips. A man on his bicycle with his pet dog were enjoying the beautiful spring time too.
Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaIf you visit the farms, do not forget to take the European experience to the max. Ladies can pick the traditional “Dutch Maid” Netherland costumes, aprons and laced caps and go around the farms. The staff will also assist you to put not he costumes. Just for 10 dollars you can get this experience as you can see one Japanese lady with her child posing for a photograph in the image below. Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaLarge swathes of tulips, numbering more than 400,000 bloom around the Dutch windmill, the water drawn by the wind energy of the windmill itself from the Lake Inba. festaEndless carpets of blush red colors of tulips. I can save some money by not travelling to Netherlands to see this…. My wife had wanted to see this tulip garden, and for no specific reasons and schedules we have never been able to make it until this year in 2016. She is happy and one more location on our to-visit list in Japan is ticked off.festaEndless flowers, I started to think that the official number of flowers 400000 is a small number, There must be millions…Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaYou can also collect tulips, if you pay some fee, but we did not know that and only realised it after I started to write this article and read some official documentation. Grrrrr totally busy with taking snaps, we lost this chance to collect some tulips on our way back.festaThe day we visited, the wind was quite strong and the tulips were braving the winds and standing tall.festaDe Liefde, is made of wood and steel. The first time in my life that I have seen a real-life-sized windmill quite an exciting experience. A small part of the field converted into a mini-Holland the complete with a symbolic windmill, I would suggest you visit on a clear sunny day to make the best of your experience.
festaA special Tokyuu train passes by with the white tulips in the foreground….Sakura - Chiba Tulip FestaOne last photograph before we go back home. Pink flower beauty.festaWith so much to do, you can comfortably be at the Sakura Tulip festa for over half a day or so…. So ends my half-day trip to see tulips. Thank you for reading, a last shot over the railway tracks as we passed over at a junction in our car… half a day well spent…festa

Leave Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Loading Facebook Comments ...
%d bloggers like this: