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Rose Garden In the Toyoshina Museum of Modern Art

Do you know there is a beautiful rose garden in the Toyoshina Museum of Modern Art? And it’s free to see the garden. Every year, it makes me want to go there.
Every year I go and take some photos, which means the garden is not only beautiful, but also comfortable and superb. A lot of people visit in the rose season, even on weekdays. The garden has about 800 roses which include 500 different kinds. There are some arches twined with roses which are quite gorgeous.

The Wasabi Farm and the Seasons

The last time I visited the wasabi farm was in the lush glow of Nagano’s green summer. So I was slightly hesitant that the landscape would not be quite as enthralling, nor the wasabi ice cream quite as appealing, in the cooler transition into winter.
However, I was pleased to find the blues and greens of the wasabi farm as bright as ever. As far as the wasabi ice cream… who was I kidding…of course I was going to eat it. Though I don’t think it has the kick anticipated from the unique Wasabi flavor, Nagano soft serve is always delicious.

Azumino’s wasabi farm is best known for it size. But being in the four seasoned Nagano, I love the wasabi farm for its reflection of seasonal, changing landscape. The blue water and green wasabi plants are surrounded by redish yellow Japanese maple leaves in fall, spiny branches in winter, pink cherry blossoms in spring, and green everything in summer. On my trip, I was extremely happy to catch the tail end of fall.

Azumino Bus Excursion

I participated in an Azumino bus tour with international students from Shinshu University.
At first, we visited the Wasabi Farm. After we got off the bus, a splendid scene unfolded before our eyes. The spread of the wasabi field surprised us. Personalized key chains fixed the female students’ attention. They are so cute!
The weather was so good that we could see the water in the field clearly. Azumino is known as the location for the movie “Dreams” directed by Kurosawa Akira. The scene with a watermill is espacially famous. We took a saunter in the park for a while.

Then we visited a large shop and museum called Art Hills which sells glassware. They sell very cute and quite beautiful items, but it’s expensive. There is a rose garden at Art Hills. It was the middle of June when we visited there. The roses were at their best. Arthills has an expensive and tasty restaurant.

The third place we stopped at was Azumino Winery. A new owner is looking after the winery. I was surprised because the winery has changed a lot. The large expanse is impressive. Roses are planted next to the vineyard because roses and grape vines get the same disease. Roses are weaker, so they get the disease earlier. They make not only wine, but also yogurt. We could see the process used in making yogurt. In the shop, they sell grape ice-cream.
A Chinese lady said to me, “Azumino is very beautiful, but there are only rice fields in Azumino. You could hardly see any houses. Maybe people live in the mountains.” I told her that Azumino is a city, but not so many people live there.
Azumino had not only these tourist spots, but also more. I wish Azumino could be famous worldwide!