Hokuryu Sunflower Village (Himawari no Sato)
📍 Hokkaido, Hokuryu
Two million sunflowers across 23 hectares of hillside — one of Japan's largest sunflower fields, grown by a tiny farming town of 1,600 people, with sunflower mazes, rental bikes, and sunflower soft-serve at peak bloom.
Most of Hokkaido’s famous flower fields peak in July; Hokuryu’s two million sunflowers hit their stride in August, when a farming town of 1,600 people briefly hosts one of the largest sunflower landscapes in Japan.
Why It’s Interesting
Himawari no Sato covers 23 hectares of gentle hillside with roughly two million sunflowers all facing the same way — a scale that turns the landscape abstract, like someone re-textured the hills in yellow. It began in the 1980s as a community project, inspired by a local farm cooperative member’s trip past the sunflower fields of former Yugoslavia, and the town has planted it collectively ever since. Entry is free; the festival trimmings (two sunflower mazes, rental bikes, sunflower soft-serve, a “World Sunflower Corner” with two dozen varieties) stay cheap and small-town. As big-name flower spots like Furano wind down, this is the field that’s actually at its best in August.
Best Time to Visit
The 40th Sunflower Festival runs July 20-August 18, 2026, with the bloom usually peaking in the first week of August — mornings give the best light and the flowers face east.
Getting There
About 1.5-2 hours from Sapporo by car (free parking), or JR to Fukagawa Station and a roughly 35-minute Hokkaido Chuo Bus ride toward Hokuryu Onsen.
🐿️ Cinnamon was here
Field report
A town of 1,600 people grows two million sunflowers, which means every resident is personally responsible for 1,250 flowers, and honestly you can tell — Hokuryu's hillside in late July is a solid yellow that looks like a paint spill on the map.
I ran the sunflower maze at stem level, which I must report is not how mazes are meant to be experienced: down there it's just a forest with one crop. So I did what I do — went UP a stalk — and navigated by head-height, calling turns down to a lost human family until we all emerged victorious and lightly dusted with pollen.
Free to wander, bikes for rent, sunflower soft-serve at the hut. Small-town Hokkaido doing one thing two million times, perfectly.
— Cinnamon 🐿️
📸 Cinnamon's camera roll
Snapshots from our very good boy on the road.
Where it is
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