It’s still spring in Japan!
And what’s more, it’s Golden Week!
That means it’s vacation time!
I was not really able to enjoy Golden Week out of town these past years because of covid and limited resources but I wish to change that this year.
And so.. I decided to spend my precious vacation by attending the Fuji Shibazakura Festival!
What Is Fuji Shibazakura Festival?
Fuji Shibazakura Festival (富士芝桜祭り read as Fuji Shibazakura Matsuri) is a yearly event during Spring that you shouldn't miss! The area will be covered by a lot of pink moss and if you're lucky, you can see the iconic Mount Fuji (富士山 read as Fujisan) in the background! The event is usually held mid-April to mid-May. This is one of the many Shibazakura Festivals in Japan.
I have been to Fuji Shibazakura Festival 3 years ago for my solo birthday trip but at that time, it wasn’t so colorful (where's the pink ground?) than I expected it to be. The festival was about to end so there were less flowers.
This year for Golden Week I want to go back there again. During Golden Week, the festival is still at its peak so I should be able to see the colorful fields as it was advertised in the trains. Yep, there are many ads on the trains about this festival.
Getting There
If you're coming from Tokyo, I think it will take around 3 hours by bus from Shinjuku.
Last time when I went to the festival, I rode the bus from Kawaguchiko Station to Lake Motosu (one of Fuji Five Lakes) and walked from there to the festival site. It was a very wrong move because I was walking alone in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the forest. The experience was kinda scary but it was nice walking seeing nature. That time I didn't know there was a direct bus from Kawaguchiko Station to the festival site for around 40 minutes. I only knew when it was time to head back to Kawaguchiko.
This time, my friends and I rode a car from Tokyo to the festival site for around 3 hours. Well, traffic happened - I think everybody's going to the festival.
In The Festival Site
The parking space was so spacious and organized. The parking fee was 700 yen, and the entrance fee to the festival is 1,000 yen for Golden Week. It will be cheaper, I think, if it's not Golden Week.
We were not able to purchase the tickets in advance so we ended up lining for maybe 5 minutes or more. This place is popular during Golden Week so there were many guests.
Once you're inside the festival site, you won't really mind that there were a lot of people because the area's so wide! I wonder how many hectares this place is!
Not disappointing at all. The flowers are blooming colorfully!
Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day so Mount Fuji was too shy and wouldn’t show himself to us. You should be able to see the majestic Mount Fuji on the background on clear skies.
I'm blabbering a lot already but I forgot to explain what is Shibazakura. Maybe you are thinking that this is a type of cherry blossoms because of the word sakura but actually, this is moss pink covering the ground. Shibazakura in english is "grass cherry blossom".
There's a place where food is sold, and it could really get crowded during lunch time. Since it's a festival, the food sold at the place is also fitting for any Japanese festival. I'm talking about yakisoba (焼きそば), skewers (串焼き), etc. It was a very cold day so the hot udon was so popular.
After having "lunch", we continued to enjoy the festival.
Cherry blossoms shouldn't be blooming during Golden Week but who would have thought that sakura is still blooming at this time in Yamanashi prefecture?
There are also other flowers and some nice areas here!
Maybe after 1.5 hours or so, we finished walking around, got tired and decided to head to our hotel. You could also go to the festival for a day trip, but we're going to another place so we're not going home yet. (In my next post, I'll talk about the continuation of our trip. 😉)
Thank you for reading!
See you around! またね！
If you would like to know more or purchase tickets or anything, feel free to check its official website in this link. The site is in Japanese though, and if you change to English it will take you to another website displaying tour packages.
All photos are taken using my phone and camera unless stated otherwise.