Photo shoots in flower fields.

Last weekend, I was on a mission.

Basically, I was contributing an article to a publication for work, and I was looking for a photo to send in along with it. I wanted a photo to go along with the article's themes...and what better timing! I happened to be going to Kamogawa to attend a friend's wedding reception.

Such a lovely day!

Nanohana flowers are one of Japan's symbols of the spring season. It is also the official flower of Chiba Prefecture (and Kamogawa as a city too)! They contrast really prettily with the blue sky...plus, they are really tasty! (But they are only good for eating before it flowers.)

My article is supposed to be published in March...so the moment I heard I needed a photo, I knew that I wanted a photo in Kamogawa's nanohana fields.

Welcome to Kamogawa's Nanabatake Road!

Being early January though, I was unsure of whether or not the nanohana would actually be in bloom yet - normally the peak season for nanohana flowers is the beginning of February.

But!!! Some random research led me to discover this - the Nanabatake Road (菜な畑ロード)! 
The location itself was really familiar to me...it is right behind Kamogawa City Hall, where I worked for three years. But the project itself is new!

Basically the tourism association, etc. have rented out what are normally rice paddies and planted about 7,000 nanohana there! (I'm not sure exactly why, but I've heard that planting nanohana in the rice paddies is actually makes the paddies better for rice planting later in the year.)

You aren't allowed to pick the flowers, but just being there makes it totally worth it.

It really was an amazing place! Walk into the fields and you are completely surrounded by the flowers. Thank you to my wonderful friends for coming out with me!! (Btw, I really love this photo.)

On a totally random note, I was stalker-ish and took a photo of this lady harvesting nanohana in one of the privately-owned nanohana fields right next to the Nanabatake Road. Kinda like how I mentioned before, but the nanohana is only good for eating before it flowers, which is why there's practically no yellow here.

Trying to be photogenic?

After making such a huge fuss about the photo, it turns out it may or may not be published with the article (because of lack of space, etc....it probably didn't help that the length of the article went over the limit they had originally told me). :/

But it was a great excuse to go and see the flowers, and be random with friends!