Wonderful Poppies in the Washinomiya area of Kuki

The Washinomiya area Cosmos Fureai road is best known for its namesake cosmos flowers, but each year in May the area has some beautiful cosmos. And just like the cosmos last Autumn, this year the main field has a ‘landscape door’. Basically, a landscape door is an “Anywhere Door” known as a Dokodemo doa in Japanese, from the anime Doraemon. The Doraemon Anywhere Door are pink, but this landscape door is white. It pops brilliantly against the red of the poppies.

Washinomiya Poppies

Poppies stretch along the Cosmos Fureai road, which is a walkway along the Kasai Irrigation Canal. It is a popular running / walking course and cyclists use it too. There are even more poppies in the flower field by Washinomiya Support Center. They typically bloom for the month of May with prime viewing around the third week in May. For one day during the period of bloom the Washinomiya area have a community festival…

Community festival

The Washinomiya area community festival is on Sunday May 14th between 10 am and 3 pm. The main venue of the festival is the Washinomiya Support Center, where the poppies are.

Washinomiya Area

The Washinomiya area is famous for several things, including the Washinomiya Shrine. It is one of the oldest shrines in the Kanto area aka the Greater Tokyo area. Some people say it is the absolute oldest. In addition, the Washinomiya Shrine is known from the popular anime “Lucky Star”. In February you can see stunning early blooming cherry blossoms by the shrine. The poppies are about a 15 minute walk from Washinomiya Shrine.

Information

Event: Washinomiya Community Festival 鷲宮地区コミュニティ祭り

Date: Sunday May 14th 2023 (the Washinomiya Poppies bloom for the month of May)

Time: 10 am to 3.00 pm

Cost: free

Venue: Washinomiya Support Center / Washinomiya Library area / Kasai Irrigation Canal. On Google Maps

Access

The festival area is about a fifteen minute walk from the Tobu Igesaki Line Washinomiya Station. In addition, it is about a 30 minute walk from the JR Utsunomiya Line Higashiwashinomiya Station. By car, the nearest interchange is the Kuki Interchange on the Tohoku Expressway.

Official Washinomiya poppy page on Kuki City website

The featured image at the top of the post was taken from the Kuki City Tourism Twitter account.