Nagashima Resort + Nabana No Sato

Hi All,

I'm currently very slowly planning my last trip to Japan and have a few days in Nagoya. Something that was suggested in a previous thread as a nice place to visit was Nagashima Resort + Nabana No Sato.

The areas I'm interested in include:

(A) Onsen area
(B) Garden area

What I'm trying to find out is what's the actual entry fees, how degraded is the flowers due to summer etc. I'd also be interested in first hand accounts of both locations as well.

I'd be visiting on probably June 22nd or 23rd, depending on weather and how I feel. I'm also not a huge fan of large crowds. JG has a much more usable site explaining these two locations, but I'm aware that there are often specials, special exhibitions and other things which I might miss in relation to this. I did find it odd that there is not really an English website for this location, that I am aware of.

Mie kotsu bus will go from JR /kintetsu kuwa na eki mae bus stop to nagashima onsen bus stop,Take 20 minutes

Mie kotsu bus stop :
Nagashima onsen
Nagashima Farm mae
Nagashima sports land
Nabana no sato
Yurakucho
Kuwana eki mae

Hi!

I've actually been to Nabana no Sato and Yuami no Shima (the onsen area) I went in December 2022.

I don't know what the most current admission prices, because I stayed on property at the Nagashima Hotel and it included free admission to both Yuami no Shima and Nabana no Sato.

I am pretty sure the indoor begonia garden is open throughout the year and is always beautiful (because it is inside) but is is an additional fee. We went in early evening for the light-up so I am less sure outside of the begonia garden what was in bloom and it was December. (We had 1 free admission to the begonia garden with our stay.)

Yuami no Shima is connected to the Nagashima Hotel, I went to both the Kurobe Gorge themed area and the Oirase Stream themed area, since I stayed overnight and visited one the night of my stay and the other in the morning. They were both incredibly nice and there were a lot of the baths. The only negative thing I would say is on the women's side there were a lot of really noisy and poorly behaved 7-9 year old appearing boys. They were all Japanese (not foreigners!) and their mothers did not do a good job of asking them to behave. They were loud and splashing and jumping into the pools. It was a lot more pleasant in the morning when it was just me and mostly older ladies. I would definitely go back, but I would also maybe go earlier in the evening or maybe later to avoid quite so many kids.

We rented a car in Kuwana and drove from there. We didn't go to the amusement park but we did go strawberry picking. We are a party of two (me and my tween daughter, who skipped out on Yuami no Shima but did Nabana no Sato and strawberry picking.) We didn't go to the outlet center.

Hope this is helpful!

Oh my goodness, I just realized it was @mfedley asking this question lol I was just so excited to share about Nabana no Sato I didn't even look at the poster.

But yes, we went around December 27th. I think if you go when it's not a school break it helps. I think the parks and hotels are closing a few days later for break because I was looking to book the hotel again on June 27th or June 28.

Thanks for the info rkold

I'll be visiting on either a Thursday or Friday (also revisiting Meiji Mura the other day) so I'll be dodging the weekend thankfully. As I'm a male, I'll unfortunately have the younger and older boys to deal with but hopefully most will be at school then.

Odd question to ask - but did you try any of the restaurants there and if so, were they ok priced and reasonable taste wise?

Did you also try the hot rock extra thing which costs 300 yen extra as an add on (it looks almost like a low temperature sauna with some odd extras).

It seems as though they have not updated their prices and such (specifically for flowers section) until the end of the night illuminations which is odd. I guess it's got a lot to do with the Mie government discounts for travel for locals which I don't think I can access.

dont go with regular busses, i really highly recommend to take the shuttle bus, which runs from the 3rd floor in metetsu bus station. it will save you a lot of time and it has only very few stops at the interesting locations: Nabana No Sato and the onsen. you can use pasmo or other cards.

according to their webpage the tickets cost currently 2100yen:
https://www.nagashima-onsen.co.jp/yuami/fee/index.html

i recommend that you FIRST go to the onsen and then later, when it is dark, to the garden, cause they have illuminations at night. at least in winter (please check their homepage for details in summer).
https://www.nagashima-onsen.co.jp/nabana/index.html

ps:
"planning my <<last>>> trip to Japan"

doing that since 10 years and still coming back one more time :-)
i know the feeling, haha

PPS: when buying the entrance ticket to the garden, you get some kinds of coupons worth about 500 YEN, which you can use either for the restaurants OR the additional indoor gardens fees. i would recommend the later.
even if it feels like a rip off to pay additionally again, the amount of flowers in this building is just insane.
here some impression:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au6YB2V0L1DnjZJLUn2WMUzKqMxtYw?e=pwu0L9

anyhow, it also give you a feeling of "too much" and "too kitschy"... (i prefer more natural things usually)

PPPS: bedrock thing not worth it in my opinion. stick to the onsens, they are lots and many and will keep you occupied for many hours just seeing them all.

Hi!

So I am stating now, I might have a high tolerance for too kitschy/too much vs. some.

I wanted to try someplace to eat at Nabana no Sato, at least for cake, but my tween was already a little anxious from the crowds. The prices seemed normal for Japan? Again, we were there for the big light-up. There looked like a delightful free foot bath but my tween also rejected this. The paths were nice to walk upon, the light up is really spectacular in places. The tunnels of lights are amazing and the begonia garden was really nice and much more extensive than it looked from the outside. We saw a few trees that still had color as well. It is a decent distance away from the onsen. I got lost when trying to return my rental car to Kuwana and accidentally went around Nabana no Sato. Kuwana felt like it had seen better days. The large building next to the station was closed and I think it was being replaced.

I didn't pay for any extra services at the spa. I thought about doing it in Tohoku later in the trip, I would say... the onsen are less kitschy than Yunessun (either bathing suit or naked.) And especially during the morning, it just felt like some really nice rotemboro with good scenery. I can't honestly say they made me think Oirase (which I have walked in October '09) but they do feel like rotemboro out in nature, at least when the kids are not there. There are also a lot of rotemboro. I would rate them higher than some rotemboro I've actually used in nature, since they were very clean and again, they know what they are doing in terms of creating an attractive environment.

We did eat at the Nagashima Hotel. I was honestly just so relieved to get a reservation I didn't request any specific accommodations and figured we could just eat plain white rice. lol I ended up eating tempura (since I will do same cooking oil) and my tween got kappa maki. I expect if you like seafood the dinner buffet is amazing. I forgot what I got for breakfast, probably yogurt. I know my tween probably had toast. The breakfast buffet was extensive and I've had better but I've also had worse. I was just disappointed in the coffee after my earlier hotels in Japan.

We ate strawberries for lunch. Since I was paying 4800 yen for strawberry picking (the tween insisted on being counted as Jr. High.) I was going to get our money's worth. We ate a LOT of strawberries. They had an interesting exhibit about olive oil, but it wasn't the season. On the 28th we left the area around 10ish in the morning as my tween wanted to get onwards to Tokyo. I wanted to do a little shopping or the theme parks, but my trips are always a compromise.

If you're asking did I like better the onsen at Airinkan actually in Tohoku or Yuami, it's definitely Airinkan, but I enjoyed my overall experience enough to want to go back. The hotel staff were really great. I want to say I paid about 34,000 yen for the hotel which included: free admission both days to Yuami no Shima, dinner, breakfast, parking, free admission to Nabana no Sato both days, free shuttle for the light up, and free admission to the begonia garden for 2 during one visit. I'd booked via JapanIcan, so I had to book as 2 adults, because their website just doesn't handle 1 adult and 1 child of any age at all. (They will show no rooms available, but if I switch to two adults suddenly lots of rooms are available, so I just then need to make sure a location isn't adult only.) So at about 17,000 yen per person, I felt like I got a lot? The room had an actual balcony and overlooked the water, which I thought was really nice, since it was a different view than I normally get.

I think all the webpages in English don't really give a good sense of the area, this is particularly true of the onsen which I thought would be smaller based on the website. I think foreigners tend to only go for the amusement park and not for anything else.

I've not been yet, but since we are going about the same time... I've been looking at https://e-flowerpark.com/access/
in Hamamatsu because it's known for its hydrangea and late June is hydrangea season. I don't know if it is on your list.

I've also been looking up hydrangea viewing sights in Kansai that are not just the usual suspects, though we do plan to re-visit Mimurotoji just because it was fun and I like hydrangea themed shaved ice.

If you are going to Tohoku during hydrangea season, rent a car and go to Michinoku Hydrangea Forest
https://www.ichitabi.jp/spot/data.php?p=36

We went on a week day in 2019.

I hope this is helpful!

Thanks for your replies.

I'm only planning on visiting for the day (or part day) from Nagoya so won't need to worry about hotel restaurants. I'll miss the rock bath thing mentioned as it did look at bit outside of what I'd normally enjoy.

Note that I'll probably use my coupons for the Begonia house that you guys have mentioned. I currently live in Europe (and am from Australia) so I'm used to paying stupid prices compared to Japan prices to visit places.

On the Flower Park near Hamamatsu - I originally had a couple of days between a flight from Nagoya to Kitakami so I was planning on visiting the Hamamatsu area along with some sites around Toyohashi. This park was actually already on my list.

The Hydrangea garden in Tohoku is also close to the Tohoku loop I'll be completing after Nagoya so it's a possibility.

Hi!

Yeah, we have been thinking about adding in some Hamamatsu sights between Kyoto and Tokyo. I am looking at the flower garden and the Yamaha Innovation Road since the tween is in travel orchestra. My other thought is stopping off at Sekigahara since we're both into the Warring States period.

We then plan to do a Tohoku section, like you, because my tween is obsessed with visiting Jesus's grave and I want to go back to Osorezan via rental car.

I think if you went to Yuamini during the day it would be a lot quieter, especially if you went when they first re-open after they clean. I was going around 9:00 pm at night and again, in the morning before I got breakfast it was empty (I went right before they closed for cleaning.)

I've not been to Europe since 2019, and I've never been to Australia. However in December we came from Hawaii to Japan, and Nabana no Sato/Japan seemed cheap after Hawaii in terms of food prices and activity prices (so did most of Japan) and not just because of the dollar to yen. I suspect even in Summer the grounds aren't bad per se, or at least not any more than Kenrokuen, since they have a lot of ponds and streams surrounded by maple trees.

If you have the time and like hydrangea I highly highly highly recommend the hydrangea forest. There were other people there, but it was not even close to crowded, it's not Kakunodate or Hirosaki during sakura season. We were the only obvious foreigners there. We did a lot of walking. The open areas of hydrangea were less interesting than the wooded areas. I've lived in parts of the US with amazing Autumn colors (CT) and I currently live in an area with a lot of really nice sakura (Seattle, WA) but I've never really lived anywhere with forests of hydrangea.

I've thought about going to see the lavender fields in Yokote, though we've not done so yet.

ME: Planning trip to Japan and completing Tohoku section in a couple of days

JG Forum: Visit this location 500 km's away from current from thread about Hamamatsu.

ME: Search location on google maps. I basically need to drive past the place - oh and the only month it's open is the month I'm driving past.

JG Forum: Haha!!! Made you change your schedule again...

RE rkold: Yeah- Osorenzan is a pretty impressive place, but I do wish I had a car when I visited as it would have opened up the area so much more. And since I teach middle schoolers - I understand the oddness in the choices. I've also visited Hirosaki which is a place I enjoyed - if you have not visited yet.

If your visiting Hamanaka - I found this website interesting: https://amazing-garden.jp/hamanako/en/

It lists all of the main gardens in the area. When I was originally planning my trip ages ago - this website kept on popping up on my facebook feed, which was enough to pique my interest. The following may not be of interest - but the Suzuki History Museum (which is free) is also in the area.

https://suzuki-rekishikan.jp/

It's free but needs to be booked in advance.

My original plan for my free day in Nagoya was:

Higashiyama Zoo
Yokiso
SC Maglev

OR the Nagashima Resort + Nabana No Sato. Visiting these two sites in Mie will probably be a lot more relaxing

Hi Mfedley,

I want to say now, I love having a tween. It was great having an elementary school kid, but I love now having a middle schooler. She has 6 more weeks of 7th grade (she skipped a grade... sort of.)

But yes, there are just certain things she will not do. Zoos are definitely one of them but she is usually up on gardens. I will look at the DT Suzuki Museum. I really wanted to go to the Fukui Dinosaur Museum, but I think it doesn't reopen until July.

I went to Osorezan via public transit in '09 and missed my bus back to the train station and got an extra 3 hours there lol I came very close to begging some Americans from the Airforce base in Misawa for a lift. I really would like to go back though and I feel like now that I am comfortable driving in Japan, it's a good destination. A friend took me to Jesus' grave and my tween is just infatuated with the concept, it was during that trip we went to Hirosaki (sakura season in '09, I also went to Kakunodate then, but I had been before) I had a great time, but the tween has not been. I do keep thinking of going back, but I regret not visiting the Oyu Stone Circles when we were in Oyu and there is some sort of lavender field in Yokote.

It's just hard because I love when I can find things we both have not done, but I also like doing things I've done before.

But thank you, it's always neat to get some new suggestions and I think you have traveled more widely than me. I did a bunch of trips where I didn't travel extensively because Japan was much harder with dietary restrictions and because I was mostly visiting with friends.

I've been thinking of going to Mt. Ikoma and Fujinomori jinja near Kyoto for the hydrangea, since both seem to have a lot and are places I've not been. I just have to see how the tween feels about it. Sometimes June heat just makes her wilt, that happened when I tried to get her hiking the Yamanobe no Michi. I might try to do that in the Winter next time. lol