Tulip Mania: Endless Tulips at Tonami’s Annual Festival!

There’s no shortage of festivals in Japan, and one of my favourites so far was the Tonami Tulip Festival that I went to yesterday, made possible by a civic holiday! The ride out by train took almost two hours, but like always the journey there is part of the fun. I was amazed at how large the park is, filled with plenty of photo opportunities, souvenirs, and performances.
There was a small river running through the park, and we passed by groups of people playing in the river blowing bubbles and swirling petals around in the water.

Later in the afternoon the park was full of several hundred dancers- and they performed to music over the speaker system. One of the ladies noticed us trying to follow along and pulled us into the group- which was a little embarrassing but incredibly fun! I chatted with one of the ladies who told me there was a total of 21 different groups from different areas of Tonami, and each had a different Yukata. It was really beautiful to see the dance through the sea of tulips, and cute to see little kids participating too.