A few days before returning to Indonesia, a Japanese friend asked me if I had free time. He, who knew that I really like flowers, wanted to bring me to the famous flower garden located in Ashikaga, Tochigi prefecture. Certainly I did not miss this opportunity, because I wanted to know the flowers that exist during fall season. We made appointment at Shinjuku Station. As I came sooner, I was waiting for him at the nearest coffee shop. I thought it seemed like he hadn’t had breakfast, so I bought cakes and sandwiches. I brought our coffee and food in a paper bag. While waiting for the train, he wanted to eat his sandwich, it turned out there was no sandwich in the paper bag, only my cake! We also realized that the cafe clerk forgot to put the sandwich in, even though we already paid for it. 🙁 As the train was about to leave, and if we returned to the coffee shop we would have missed the train, we finally decided not to go again to the cafe. I was so surprised because Japanese people are usually very careful.
On the way, we would change the train with Shinkansen. After arrived in transit station, we looked for shinkansen platform. However, we couldn’t find it. Well, both of my friend and I are Maigo (missing child) or Hoko Onchi (less sense of direction). ^^’ Until finally we found the platform, the train had begun to leave! When we saw the next train schedule, we had to wait for one hour. 🙁 As there were still a few minutes left, we, who were starving decide to buy a bento to eat at the next shinkansen.
Finally, we could ride on Shinkansen. After sitting in a comfortable position, both of us who were so starving decided to eat our bento. When we opened the bento, we were so surprised to find no chopsticks inside. Neither in bento nor in plastic bag, nothing. Huaaa, eventhough my stomach was so hungry! My friend tried to calm me down. He said we could look for convenient stores at the next transit station or in Ashikaga station to ask for chopsticks.
Finally, we arrived at the next transit station. However, we did not find chopsticks. Even when we arrived at Ashikaga Station, there were no convenient stores there. We decided to just walk to Ashikaga Flower Park. In order to go inside, we passed a souvenir shop. My friend told me to wait because he wanted to ask the souvenir clerk. Unfortunately, there were no chopsticks. Nevertheless, they sold Wisteria-pattern spoons and forks at a total price of around 400 yen. As it was impossible to eat by hand, we finally decided to buy.
When we opened our bento again and looked behind the cover, we directly looked at each other, hey!! the chopsticks were given!!!! It was just that we didn’t realize the chopsticks were attached behind the cover. Huaaaa, I felt like I wanted to cry!! Along the journey I was so hungry, then spent money to buy a spoon and fork, then both of us just realized the chopsticks were behind the bento cover! It was quite strange, because chopsticks are usually given separately from the bento or directly inside the bento, so we did not realize it. Indeed, if humans get hungry, it is easy to be emotional. ^^ ‘
After paying for the ticket in the souvenir shop, we entered the park. Apparently … there wasn’t much flower to see. ^^’ Indeed, autumn is not the flower season. Actually, my friend invited me here in order to see illumination. When we walked around, we saw the remaining flowers were roses, mexican bush sage, and some flowers that I didn’t know the name but have already withered. I thought it was because the season was changing from fall to winter, so many flowers became withered. Besides, the park was so quiet as almost none at the park, only we, who were young people. Occasionally there were some grandparents and grandmothers.
Indeed, Ashikaga Flower Park is famous for wisteria or fuji flowers in spring, mid-April to mid-May. Not for this fall season which was also changing to winter.
During spring this tunnel is filled with Wisteria flowers
Didn’t know what it’s called, but it’s cute ^^
At night there would be illumination
Beautiful rose
Beautiful rose
After going around, we realized that in November there wasn’t much flowers. We decided to take a break at a nearby cafe surrounded by roses. In the café, there were only two grandmothers who chatted. ^^’
We decided to order warm chocolate and cheese cake. Somehow, the mood in the café was like a royal english breakfast. We decided to chat like a British noble using British accent, wkwk. It was sooo fun! Hahaha.
Warm chocolate in a beautiful wisteria cup <3
Annisa version of warm chocolate and cheese cake in British style
After the two grandmothers left, only we, who still stayed at the cafe. Both of us realized the café employees glanced at us. However, we ignored them. Until finally, one of the cafe employees approached us and said the cafe would be closed at 3 p.m. The time was already showing at 3 p.m, and indeed, Ashikaga Flower Park would be closed temporarily and opened again at 16:30 for illumination.
There was nothing outside, only flower seeds for sale. Even in the surrounding area, it was so far from residences, there was no entertainment whatsoever, waiting outside for 1.5 hours in this very cold weather seemed impossible. We decided to return to Ashikaga Station. The station was really in the village, there was none, not even the station employees. We saw the train schedule usually come every 1-2 hours. After we thought about it thoroughly, it would be better if we went home, because even at Ashikaga Flower Park, there were almost no tourists. If we returned to the park at 16:30, we worried that we would go home too late or missed the train, while the train in the village was sometimes delay or come late. Instead of missing the train and waiting for hours in the cold weather, we decided to just go home. While for illumination, we could see it in Tokyo, because in Tokyo itself there were many beautiful illuminations.
Flower seeds sold in Ashikaga
Flower seeds sold in Ashikaga
Flower seeds sold in Ashikaga
On the way, we felt very tired, we also laughed at today experience which felt really something. Met a streak of misfortunes. The trip to Ashikaga from Tokyo is quite far and long, about 2 hours. Even so, I was sooo happy. 😀 We got to know each other’s character when faced with difficulties, hahaha. Indeed, for me, the essential thing of the trip is not only the destination, but who the travel partner is. Luckily, my traveling companion to Ashikaga was very interesting, so the trip still felt interesting. I want to chat again with British accents style in Ashikaga. Hoho. Thank you for bringing me to Ashikaga. ^^
Next : Trip in Tokyo (Part 1)
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