Enjoy Cosmos Fields, Cycling, and More at Sakura City Cosmos Festival in Chiba
Visit Chiba this October to walk through a sea of 500,000 cosmos overlooked by a picturesque Dutch windmill during the 2022 Sakura City Cosmos Festival. Located just by Lake Imba, you can make a day out of your visit to Sakura Furusato Plaza by renting bikes or enjoying a lake cruise, making this a fun and affordable escape from Tokyo the whole family will love. Read on for all the details you need to know about this October event in Chiba!
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Sakura Cosmos Festival
Sakura Cosmos Festival, held in Sakura Furusato Plaza in Sakura City, Chiba, will run from October 8th to October 23th in 2022. During this event, visitors can enjoy the stunning view of a multi-colored field of cosmos blooming under the plaza's romantic Dutch windmill.
Visitors can pick their own cosmos flowers from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm each day for a small fee: five flowers for 100 yen, or 300 yen for a bag. Since the field can get muddy at times, be sure to wear suitable shoes if you want to pick your own flowers!
On Saturday and Sundays, there will also be a farmers market held in the plaza where you can purchase vegetables and other local produce. You can also buy Cosmos Festival souvenirs at Saranka, the plaza's rest area.
De Liefde Windmill
The De Liefde Windmill at Sakura Furusato Plaza was built by Dutch craftspeople in 1994 to celebrate the 40th year of the founding of Sakura City. Its name, De Liefde, means "love" in Dutch, and was chosen to celebrate the friendship between the Netherlands and Japan.
Visitors can go up to the second floor of the windmill where you can see the Dutch-made gears at work up-close. A display of bicyles from the Netherlands are also exhibited here.
Furthering the spirit of cultural exchange, there is also a Dutch garden that you can enjoy year-round at Sakura Furusato Plaza. Designed by Sakura City landscape designer Yuko Koga, this garden changes seasonally with Dutch plants and flowers including tulips, grape hyacinth, crocus, and more, so you can enjoy strolling the thoughtfully designed garden paths while basking in the fresh air of nearby Imba Lake.
There are also 24 small flower beds in the Share Garden on the north-west side of the windmill, each of which are maintained by residents of Sakura City. Each garden is full of its own personality, and the decorations the gardeners create for special events like Christmas and Girls' Day are also a local highlight, too.
Sakura City Furusato Plaza
If you want to make a day of your trip to Sakura City, why not enjoy the city's immaculately designed bicycle rental program? There are four pick up and drop off points available, including tourist information centers at both the JR and Keisai Sakura Stations, so you can easily tour the plaza and nearby Imba Lake area by bike before you return the bikes to the station. Regular bikes are available for 500 yen, while electric-assisted bikes are 1,000 yen.
For an even more romantic experience at the Cosmos Festival, you can rent a tandem bike for two hours to ride inside the Sakura Furusato Plaza for 1,500 yen.
Furusato Plaza is located right by Imba Lake, where sightseeing boats are also available for tours.
Get Off the Beaten Path in Sakura City, Chiba!
Even if you're not in town for the Cosmos Festival, Sakura City Furusato Plaza has a range of activities all year round, including the Tulip Festival in the spring, the Sunflower Festival and fireworks displays in the summer, and more. For more information, check out their offical website below!
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The information in this article is accurate at the time of publication.
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