Winter illuminations occur in cities across Japan around Christmas and New Year but some even extend to spring. Japan’s Winter Light Festival in Kunawa, Japan, is famous for being home to one of Japan’s finest winter illuminations. Nabana No Sato is a botanical theme park in Kuwana and has a winter light festival which runs from the end of October to the end of March. It is one of the largest parks in Japan the size of 300,000 square meters. In spring, it blooms with flowers, blossoms, cherry trees and many other flowering plants. During winter, the park is illuminated with millions of LED lights and becomes a winter wonderland.

Guests strolling through the park will have their senses titillated by the wonderful spectacle of light intermingled with the fragrance of flowers and cold winter weather. The themes of the displays change from year to year. Past themes have incorporated the Swiss Alps, the Aurora Borealis, Niagara Falls, Mount Fuji, and the 2018 theme honouring Kumamoto. This year’s theme is Japanese scenery.

One of the main attractions is the 200 meters long light tunnel, made up of some 1.2 million light bulbs. Another attraction is the more recent Kawazu Sakura light tunnel. At 100 metres long, it is designed with around 700,000 pink LED lights to resemble the Kawazu cherry tree which is known to have one of the earliest blooming cherry blossoms in the country.  It is very popular with couples.

The flower section is a lesser known attraction but manages to happily surprise visitors. It provides a great view of flowers especially at night when they are illuminated by the lights. Visitors who may get hungry from all the walking can stop by at any one of the restaurants located around the park.