Sunshine on my shoulders

Knowing my love of sunflowers, my husband found an epic festival for us to attend.  The city of Kiyose in Tokyo Prefecture has held a sunflower festival every summer for the last 10 years.  It is the largest sunflower display in Tokyo.  As soon as he suggested going, I was excited.  I love sunflowers.  They remind me of my best friend, who has always grown them in her garden.  Whenever I see them, I think of her smile and it makes me happy.

The train ride to the festival was only a half hour.  Since most of the trip was above ground, my son was very pleased.  He's pretty tired of riding subways.  He would rather ride in an above ground train any day.

There is a shuttle from the train station to the festival.  We had to wait in line for the shuttle for about 20 minutes.  You can walk, but they estimate a 35 minute walk.  With a 5 year old, that equates to about an hour long slow stroll. 

The bus hit a small bit of traffic.  Nothing quite like the tulip festival in Skagit Valley, Washington though!  As we travelled there, I thought about our many trips to the tulip festival.  There's something about seeing huge fields of flowers that is so fun and beautiful. 

After getting off the shuttle, we still had a short walk to the fields.  Although there were a lot of people there, they walked nicely in an orderly fashion.  Soon we had the fields in view.  What a sight!  Today was the first day of the festival, so we knew that many blooms were still waiting to burst open, but the fields were already aglow with bright, cheerful blooms.

There was a pedestrian bridge for people to walk higher than the sunflowers, as well as paths through the fields.  My husband thought they should have made a sunflower maze instead of just straight paths.  What a great idea!

We were graced with gorgeous weather today.  It actually wasn't too hot!  Perfect for walking around the fields, in fact. 

I was so surprised when I realized we hadn't even left Tokyo.  The field wasn't huge, but it was much bigger than I expected.  I felt enveloped by bright sunshine.

There were some farmers selling vegetables and fruit grown locally, as well as sunflowers.  Attendees could either buy potted sunflowers, or there was a u-cut field.  There was also a couple food stands, mostly selling shaved ice.  We walked away with a couple potted sunflowers.  Even though I have sunflowers in my garden, I can always use more happy flowers in my home.

We had a lovely time.  It was a great laid back Saturday activity.  It made me wish I could paint, as I would have loved to spend some time gazing and recreating the scenery.