Looking for sunflowers in Sayama City? We’ve got you covered! In the Horikane area of Sayama city there is a sunflower field along the side of a busy road. It is not the largest and certainly not the prettiest, but it is a free sunflower field popular with locals. Moreover, it has a maze in it. Again, not particularly large, and not very challenging for an adult, but fun for kids who will revel in getting lost among the tall sunflowers.
Sunflowers in Sayama City
Every August, members of the Horikane community grow sunflowers in a small field near the Horikane Community Center. They grow approximately 10,000 sunflowers, so a tenth of the size of the fields in Kumagaya, for example. And it certainly didn’t feel like there were that many when I visited. But there were more than enough to make the sunflower field photogenic… if only it hadn’t of been such a cloudy day when I visited!
Moreover, there are just about enough to make the maze challenging for small children. In addition, they are densely packed into the space and are particularly high, so they make an ideal maze for kids. They grow to about 1.7 meters according to the event page on Sayama City website last year (2021). There is a dais in the center of the fields so you can keep an eye on kids from above, so to speak. In addition, it doubles up as a great place to get a photo of the sunflowers.
The sunflowers generally bloom around the last two weeks of August. The Horikane community center posted August 8th 2022 to say the sunflowers have started to bloom. The photos in this post were taken August 21st 2021. When it wasn’t nearly as hot or unbearable as a normal summer in Japan. But unfortunately 2022 is a particularly hot one.
Information
Season: generally mid to late August
Cost: The sunflower field and maze is free to visit, but if you want to take some sunflowers home with you it costs 100 yen for five sunflowers.
Address: 298-2 Horigane, Sayama, Saitama 350-1312. Phone: 04-2958-4050
Online: In 2021, the most recent information was posted on the Sayama City website. They’ve renewed the website between this and then, so the page no longer exists. Presumably, they will add a new web page closer to the time. Before the pandemic they would update the Facebook page, but they may not do that in 2022. And here is the web page for the Horikane Community Center as information maybe added there. In 2021, they had a poster and information at the center itself about the sunflowers too.
Access
The field is marked on Google maps, as per below, but the Horikane Community Center is a good landmark if you are using another map app. Also, the parking for the sunflower fields is at that community center. It is just a small car park, but people come and go quite frequently so it is relatively easy to get a spot. Please note you have to cross a busy road from the parking to the fields. There are traffic lights relatively nearby.
The information was accurate and up-to-date, as far as I am aware, at the time of writing – June 15th 2022. Please do always check with the official site for any last minute changes due to the pandemic and / or other mitigating factors.