Nothing is as breathtaking as flower photography.  Niigata has its own festival to celebrate one of its more bountiful assets, nature.  Starting each year on November 1st and lasting until November 24th, Yahiko city hosts the most photogenic flower event in Niigata.  Every flower represents another photo op for a perfectly prepared bed of flowers.  And what flower merits its own festival?  Chrysanthemums.  They are the star of Yahiko’s festival, and deservingly so.

In autumn, the chill in the wind makes the sky an especially brilliant azure, a beautiful background for the 4,000 chrysanthemum displays.  These flowers are not shipped in from locations around Japan.  Each of the 4,000 displays is constituted from flowers that have been grown and cared for locally, so with every photo you take from your Niigata photo tour, you are capturing a piece of the local culture and a reflection of hours spend in cultivating natural beauty.

The flowers also inspire creativity as local flower arranging experts craft spectacular scenes using chrysanthemums for the different colors to depict the entire nation of Japan or sometimes more locally themed landscapes.  I and the other Blain Harasymiw tour leaders have seen the festival, and we want to share it with you!  Why not join us?