Wow Place #327: Shikisai-no-oka, Bie, Japan

Before visiting central Hokkaido, Japan, I had never heard of “Agriculture as tourism” (“noukou” in Japanese).

I mean, sure, I been to plenty of famous gardens around the world. Most of them were small, well-tended and meant for up-close viewing; you literally got right in there and smelled the roses.

Visiting Shikisai-no-oka is a different experience: a flower farm meant to be viewed from a distance, for the aesthetic pleasure of it all.

Opened to the public in 1999 with the goal of promoting tourism through agriculture, Shikisai-no-oka (“Hills of Seasonal Colors”) began life as a community initiative. At the time, the area was suffering from depopulation and economic challenges. In order to survive the tough financial times, local farmers and volunteers got the idea of developing a large patch of land (originally used for crops like potatoes and wheat) into a vibrant, colorful display of flowers that change from season to season.

The park, today, features a 15-hectare landscape of rolling hills covered with a wide variety of flowers, arranged in intricate patterns to create a dazzling display.

Depending on the month you might see:
• June: poppies, sunflowers, lilies, and irises.
• July: lavender primarily, along with sunflowers, marigolds, and poppies
• August: cosmos, zinnias, and buckwheat

Not a flower connoisseur, myself, I know practically nothing about the vegetation I’m looking at as I wander around Shikisai-no-oka. For all I know, it could all be color splashed on the ground by a sloppy giant house painter.

I suspect that’s actually the point of Shikisai-no-oka. You don’t need to get up close or know what the individual flowers are; you view the fields from afar, the better to enjoy the artistic merit of the vast bands of parallel color stretching on as far as the eye can see. This is an “art installation of flowers,” designed to goggle the eye with its vastness of color.

It’s also a pretty decent money making location. Selfie-snapping tourists roll in by the busload to fill up their camera memories. For a few hundred yen more, they can book a buggy or cart ride, take a helicopter journey high above, or drop in on a nearby alpaca stable. You get the idea.

If you want to avoid the crowds, there are many other similar locations in this area including the charming, nearby Flower Land Kamifurano. For sheer sweeping majesty, though, my money is on Shikisai-no-oka. Just walk away from the crowds and bathe yourself in the glorious feast of color.

(Generally speaking, I’m in favor of folks slowing down and taking a close, quiet look at the reality all around them. But the opposite is sometimes true as well. We get so caught up in the minutiae of our lives that we can’t see the forest from the trees. Perhaps that’s why photos of the earth from orbit are so stunning. At last, we can see the whole thing. Not just the place where we toil away our tiny lives, but the home of 8 billion people and many more animals, plants and vegetables. We can see the ever-growing damage of climate change. We can see “the big picture.” In times like these, what could be more important than pulling back and thinking of the collective over the individual good.)