Bus tour to enjoy Shiba-sakura(moss phlox), rice terraces and strawberry picking　

* Hitsuji-yama Park is on the slope of Hitsuji-yama hill at the foot of Mt Buko (regarded as the symbol of Chichibu) and 16,500 square meters in area. Various colors of moss phlox are planted and look like literally " the patchworks of flowers "This park has 400,000 moss phloxes of 8 varieties including pink, white, purple, and so on and is also called " the hill of moss phlox "

* Moss phlox is from the North America and a perennial creeper growing on the ground. It has the small, five-petalled flowers in rose, mauve, blue, white, or pink color in late spring to early summer.

* Tanada or rice terraces are leveled and cultivated sections on the hill, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid surface runoff of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance and called Senmaid (a thousand paddy fields) in Japanese language. In Saitama prefecture there are rice terraces in Terasaka Yokoze.

* Japanese strawberry is large-sized and good mixture of the sweet and the sour. The tip to pick the strawberry well is first to chose red and ripen one and second to put the strawberry ‘s stalk between your forefinger and middle finger and push the berry softly with your thumb.

>> You may also be interested in "Stay in a local Japanese house in Kamakura ", "Mt.Fuji & Hakone Tour Return by Bullet Train "

* All photos are sample images.