The Toda City Illumination event “Toda Illumi” is relatively new, it only started in 2019. (There are also other illumination events in Toda City which have been around for longer). The city aim to make illumination synonymous with winter in Toda. According to Toda City, this year’s winter illumination will be the biggest to date.
Featured image at the top of the post from No-longer-here on Pixabay.
Toda Illumi
The Toda Illumination event is called “Toda Illumi”. In 2022 – 2023 they will use 24,000 lights, which is about 1.5 more than in previous yeas. There is illumination in three different locations for the annual “Toda Illumi”. The start of the illumination is staggered, but the end date is the same for all: February 28th 2023.
Ushiroya Park Toda City
The display at Ushiroya Park will be the first to start. Ushiroya Park is a local greenery park for citizens, near Toda City Hall. It is possibly best known for its cherry blossoms, but truthfully, I am not particularly familiar with this park. They have an illumination “gate” and there are also photo spots in the park. The city switch the illumination on on Sunday November 27th. They are also planning a switch on ceremony. That will start at 4.40 pm on the 27th.
During the period of the illumination there will be a night market at Ushiroya Park on the second and fourth Saturday of the month. There will be food vans (kitchen cars) in the park for the occasion. The market starts at 4 pm and ends at 8 pm.
Update February 2023: there will be a mini concert in the park (weather permitting) on the last Saturday of the event, February 25th, from 4 pm to 8 pm. It will also be the last night of the night market.
Toda City Funsui Park
The second display to get switched on is at Funsui Park. Funsui Park is located close to the south of JR Kita-Toda Station. The illumination starts on Sunday December 4th.
Toda station
In addtion, there is a third location at the flower display in front of Toda Station. That will start on Sunday December 11th.
Information
Event: Toda Illumi (illumination) 戸田イルミ
Dates: November 27th to February 28th 2023. (Start dates differ by location, please see the main text for specifics)
Time: 5 to 10 pm
Venues: Ushiroya Park, Funsui Park, Toda station.
Official website. Which unfortunately is just a one page poster (as of November 24th 2022).
Ten other places for illumination in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo.