Nabana no Sato

Nabana no Sato is a commercial flower park in the Nagashima resort complex on the Kiso river delta, with begonia glasshouses, seasonal beds and a foot bath, and for about half the year it is an ordinary if well-kept garden. From late October to May it becomes the largest winter illumination in Japan: several million LEDs across the grounds, a main display filling a field with an animated scene that changes theme annually, a two-hundred-metre tunnel of lights that visitors walk through in a slow-moving queue, a shorter second tunnel, and a lake lit from below. An observation platform rises above the display. The scale is the point and the crowds are proportionate. The entry ticket includes a voucher spendable at the restaurants and shops on site, which is a sensible arrangement given how long people spend there.

What you actually see

• Several million LEDs - the largest winter illumination in Japan.
• A two-hundred-metre tunnel - walked through in a slow-moving queue.
• An annual main display - an animated field scene with a theme that changes each year.
• Begonia glasshouses - the park's year-round horticultural draw.

When to go

Late October to May, after dark. An evening; arrive before the lights come on.

Honest expectations

Crowds through the illumination season are severe and the tunnel queue is slow. Parking and roads congest badly at weekends. It is cold standing in a field for hours. Outside the illumination it is a modest commercial garden.

Nearby

Nagashima Spa Land is on the same complex; Nagoya is north-east.