Welcome to #TravelTuesdays! This will feature my travel updates every Tuesday of the week. This is to give my Explorer soul an opportunity to not only share places of interests, but also my travel diaries. Enjoy fresh travel scoops weekly! Starting today, #TravelTuesdays will feature my Japan Travel Series. I hope you enjoy my Japan travel diaries weekly!
Nabana no Sato is a theme park located in Mie, Japan. It was in the itinerary of the pre-booked tour that I booked for that Saturday last Autumn 2019. Unfortunately, I missed the tour despite being there 30 minutes before the meetup time. Yes, I missed my packaged tour, but I figured that I shouldn’t let it hinder me from visiting this beautiful place. After spending a whole day there, I’ve never been so grateful of missing a pre-booked tour in my whole life.
Come and see the magic that is Nabana no Sato!
The Plant Market
We arrived in Nabana no Sato at 11am, so we dropped by the Flower Market located at a space across the entrance of Nabana. I wasn’t really interested with the idea of a Flower Market, but after seeing this huge market of plants, I literally wished that I could take home 4 or 5 of plants!
I think it is more accurate to call this market a Plant Market instead of a Flower Market, because there are other plants as well. Fruit Trees marcottings, veggie seeds, flowers, and many more. With prices from JPY 50 and over. If you are a fan of gardening or plants in general, this is an absolute go-to place.
Their Autumn Colors
Visiting Nabana at the 3rd week of November will give you another perk. They have beautiful Autumn Colors. Additional to that, they light them up at night!
The Begonia Botanical Garden
I really have to say that this is my most favorite part of the visit. Everybody knows Nabana for its illumination, but the best thing for me is the Begonia Garden. It is just surreal and UNBELIEVABLE!
The Flower Pot Room
They have very pretty flowers in various colors that are placed in separate pots. They have hanging flowers that are in full bloom. These babies are placed in a huge rectangular room, and expect that when you get in there, you will be met with vibrant colors.
The giant Blooms
After the room full of Flower Pots, the next room of the Begonia Garden will surprise you with hugeeeeee plants.
They do not only have flowers, but other exotic plants as well. I have to say that the whole room smells really nice. The plants are not only pretty, but they smell like heaven as well.
All the rooms are equipped with the necessary Humidifier of some sort, I am not really sure, but there are a lot of huge tubes coming out and some sprays. These equipments are the reason why these beautiful plants are in great conditions.
A Garden of Roses
Begonia Garden does not only showcase plants that are grown inside the facility. They also have an outside garden with a cute little Creek.
There may be many plants in that garden, but majority of them are Roses. Roses, in various colors and sizes. When we went there, the Roses are not yet in full bloom, but they were already gorgeous.
In addition to that, the little Creek is flowing. It doesn’t look man-made at all. Such a great place to relax and unwind.
The magic Pond
Just when I thought that the Begonia Garden tour is over, we went inside another room that is again full of the pretty flower pots, and in the center of it is a huge magnificent artificial Pond.
Do you see the magic that I saw? Gorgeous sight, isn’t it? I will never be able to describe this Pond in words, so might as well just let you see a photo that I took of it.
And that was the magical Begonia Botanical Garden. What an absolutely gorgeous place, isn’t it? Being there personally really feels like you’re in a fantasy world. The whole thing was just unbelievable.
The Foods
Nabana no Sato has it all. It is a huge park with attractions, but it will also not let your stomach get hungry. There are a lot of restaurants around, starting from Italian food, to Japanese foods, and some sweets. You will never have any problem feeding yourself at all. Plus, the price of these foods are also not a problem.
The picture above is a Beer House, with an Italian menu, I believe so. It’s quite famous. People are lining up for it. We didn’t want to spend a lot money on food, so we didn’t get in this huge restau.
We ate in a traditional Japanese Noodle House because we cannot find any other restaurants that we liked. This is a Chicken Noodle priced for JPY 1650. I was very excited to eat it, because I haven’t eaten Chicken for a very long time, but I quite didn’t like the taste of it. They have other types servings, tho.
They also sell this must-try Grape Ice Cream for JPY 350. Unfortunately, it comes in a disposable container. As for the taste, it was adequately sweet. Just the right snack that I needed at that time. They sell this inside the Begonia Garden.
I recommend that you bring your own spoon. I tried to avoid using the plastic spoon but I couldn’t eat it properly. So, bring’em spoon!
The Island Fuji Ride
This 7-minute ride will bring you 45 meters high, allowing you to have an aerial view of the park, as well as the surroundings. It is priced for JPY 500.
We rode it during the Sunset and with the pretty orange skies, I must say that it was the best timing.
The famed Illumination
Ladies and gentleman, this is the only reason why I decided to visit Nabana, at first. I would like to thank this illumination for luring me in. If it wasn’t because of it, I will not witness the magical Begonia Garden.
But anyway, there’s only 1 word for their Illumination; GRAND!
The magic starts in this lake. The entire time I was watching this display, the only thought I had was that, it looks like a Frozen movie setup. Haha!
Then, my most awaited part of the Illumination; the grand tunnel of lights.
It was absolutely everything that I imagined it to be. It was very long, with such gorgeous lights. Being there, looking at the seemingly endless tunnel was a magical feeling. I can’t even think of another word to describe it, other than “magical.”
The only thing that I hated about the whole experience is the fact that there was a river of people. I mean that literally. Like countless people walking in one direction with you, and you just can’t stop to appreciate the whole display, because you gotta keep walking for everybody to be able to pass. I couldn’t even get a proper photo that would give justice to how beautiful the tunnel was. But anyway, it was still magical, to say the least.
And finally, for the finale, they have this huge display below, for what seemed like a forest. It changes color depending on the flow of the presentation. And the presentation shows the season of Japan; Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
The picture above shows the display in its Autumn form. What I love about the illumination display is how realistic it looks. Very pretty indeed.
The picture may look like it’s only a small display, but NO. It is a massive illumination display. It was spectacular!
Walking to the exit is as magical as the way in with those lights shaped in a flower petal.
And there’s more illumination displays. How I wish I could stay long.
And that’s a wrap!
The whole Nabana no Sato experience is impossible to fit in just 1 hour. With the planned tour I booked, they will only allow us 1 hour in Nabana. That is why I am very happy to have missed the tour and to have witnessed this huge magical place for 1 whole day.
The Expenses
Of course, I am not leaving out the practicalities of this visit, so here is the summary of my expenses, for your reference.
JPY 980 : Transportation Roundtrip to-from Nagoya Station
JPY 2300 : Entrance Fee
JPY 1150 : Food (originally JPY 2150, but the entrance fee has a JPY 1000 coupon, which can be used for food and other fees in the park.)
JPY 500 : Island Fuji fee
——————
JPY 4930
Some Tips and Tricks
- Spend 1 day there.
The park is really hugeeeee. Half day is not enough. This trip and the fee will be worth it if you spend 1 whole day there. - Bring your own food and drinks.
Staying there for a day is costly because of the food and drinks. So if you can bring own, which I believe you can, it would save you a lot of money. Plus, it’s more eco-friendly! - Tours?
Well, I personally will not recommend tours for Nabana because it will cut your time short. But if you really want to, there are great options available from time to time in Klook. Just use “Nabana no Sato” as a keyword during search.
And that’s all for this trip to Nabana no Sato. I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour of this amazing place. You better visit it some time in the future. I can guarantee a worthwhile day in your visit.
All love,
