Tonami Tulip Fair — As Seen In Japan

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This year, we spent Golden Week in Kanazawa with Eriko’s family. During our time there, we took a trip up to Toyama Prefecture for a really special event: the Tonami Tulip Fair.

The fair: so many flowers!

The Tonami Tulip Fair 2022 was held in April and the first part of May in Tonami, a small city in North-Central Honshu that’s about 3 hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen. The entry cost was only 1,300 yen, and allowed visitors to see over 3 million tulips.

If you’d asked me before this, I guess I would have thought there were maybe 3 or 4 kinds of tulips at most? Turns out there are over 300 varieties, and at the fair, they’re spread out over a pretty big area so that even though there’s a big crowd, you can easily find space to take pictures of all the pretty flowers.

The fair is more than just flowers

There were also the standard fair trappings like a stage where performers did some sort of dance, food vendors, and a couple of big friendly mascots!

If you’re curious, here’s a video of the 2019 version that shows the scope of the park and some of what you can expect:

But the main attraction is the tulips, and boy howdy, do they have some impressive flowers…

Prize-winning tulips

At an indoor venue in the back of the park, we got to see a room full of the best tulips, including this year’s award winners. The variety of bold colors was absolutely breathtaking.

Is the Tonami Tulip Fair worth traveling for?

Absolutely. Let me reiterate just how many tulips there are at this thing. It’s astounding and incredibly beautiful. You can leisurely walk around and see everything at your own pace, staying all day if you wish. These pictures only represent a fraction of what there is to see. If you are anywhere near Toyama in the spring and want a unique experience most visitors to Japan will never get, absolute go to the Tonami Tulip Fair.

How to get to the Tonami Tulip Fair

The Tonami Tulip Fair is in Toyama, which can be reached from Osaka or Kyoto by train, and from Tokyo by Shinkansen (bullet train). One of the best ways to get around Japan is by purchasing a JR Pass, which will allow you to take unlimited train rides for a certain period of time. You can buy a national pass for 7, 14, or 21 days, or a pass limited to a specific region so you’re only paying for the places you plan to be.

If you’re planning to visit Tokyo and Kyoto (the two most popular tourist destinations) and want to stop in Tonami on the way to see the festival, you can purchase the Osaka-Tokyo Hokuriko Arch Pass, which covers Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Toyama, Tokyo, and a lot more. Even if you’re just taking the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Tonami and back with some additional train travel around Tokyo, the pass can save you money.

JR Pass also offers pocket Wi-Fi so you can connect your phone to the Internet anywhere in Japan (we got my mom one of these when she visited and we swear by them), and even has a Meet & Greet service where they’ll be waiting for you at the airport to help you avoid confusion and get where you’re going. Depending on where you want to spend your time in Japan, you can save a lot of money with a JR Pass.

One last thing

While walking around the tulip fair, I kept singing a certain song my wife had never heard before. This gave me a chance to introduce her to the GREATEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE OF ALL TIME. Enjoy: