Golden Week, that series of national holidays that falls at the end of April and during the first week of May, is a time for the people in Japan to take their compulsory days off and do touristy stuff with their families. No rest for this blogger, though: it's off to Takaoka for the Mikurumayama Festival, then to Tonami for their Tulip Fair.
We'll start from newly-renovated Takaoka Station, a sparkling, long-needed upgrade for Toyama Prefecture's second city. Currently served by JR and Takaoka's Manyosen, a streetcar line that runs towards the bay and to Shinminato, it will become a station on the third-sector Ainokaze Toyama Railway as JR divests itself of the Hokuriku Line after the opening of the parallel Hokuriku Shinkansen in 2015.
Held annually on May 1, the Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival features seven enormous wheeled floats, elaborately decorated and pushed through town by representatives from different neighborhoods. On festival day, the streets to the north of the station (make a left as you exit from the main ticket gates) are taken over by floats, revelers, and lines of stalls (屋台, yatai) pushing festival foods and games.
Food-wise, you'll find all the standards: bags of mini castella (カステラ, kasutera), hashimaki (はしまき, okonomiyaki wrapped around chopsticks), corn on the cob, baked potatoes, all kinds of skewered meats and seafoods, and so on. This trip oddly featured a smoked turkey-leg stall, so keep an eye out for potentially delicious curiosities, as well. Another first for this blogger was the fact that police appeared to actually be inspecting stalls, though to what effect or purpose was unclear. In any case, make sure your yakitori chicken skewers are cooked thoroughly before you cram them in your maw.
Arrive around noon and you'll find the opening ceremony and the one-by-one introduction of the different floats. If raining heavily, they'll try to postpone the parade until the next day, but a light sprinkle didn't warrant anything more than a plastic sheet or two over some of the more vulnerable float decorations. Keep walking north until you hit the gaggle of onlookers and seats for dignitaries.
The floats are meant as an impressive—if unsubtle—demonstration of Takaoka's traditional manufacturing prowess, especially in the areas of metal- and lacquer-work. Each float features a different motif, often with some sort of puppet, and carries sleepy, bored children in festival getup.
It takes no small amount of work to manhandle these things around town and it's often interesting to pay attention to the pushers and bearers. To turn, they'll lift and drop the heavy mass in the new direction, shaking the springy decorations and passengers. Do make sure you're not run over, though there will surely be no lack of paternal reminders to this effect.
Having taken in the festive spectacle, make your way back to Takaoka Station and board a train on the Jōhana Line, bound for Tonami (￥240, 20 minutes). Tonami is the proud home to a bazillion tulips (or a claimed 2.5 million, anyway), all around the countryside but centered on the Tonami Tulip Park, about 10 minutes walk northeast of the station.
During the Tonami Tulip Fair (late April through the first week of May), free shuttle buses run from the east side of the station to the park at regular intervals. The boarding point is past the left end of the roundabout, so watch for buses pulling up or idling there.
Rental bicycles are also available for a fair hourly rate; check with the information counter next to the ticket gates.
Admission to the Tulip Fair runs a somewhat steep ￥1000, but gets you the opportunity to gawk at hundreds of varieties of tulips (around 600, in fact) in sizes, shapes, and creative configurations you'd never conceived of. Show up during the right blossoming period and you'll see hearts and other romantic messages appear, written in technicolor tulips. An astounding, dumbfounding number of tulips, truly.
If you don't happen to be in Tonami when the Tulip Fair is being held, the park itself should be freely open to the public during the rest of the year, though your chances of seeing flowers in bloom is obviously greatly diminished.
Wander the park a bit more and you'll find the Old Nakashima House (旧中嶋家), an original example of Edo Period (1603-1867) homes in the area and the oldest wooden building in Tonami. This building tends to be closed, but opens during festival times or for special tours.
Keep walking counterclockwise and you'll come across a series of watermills. Take some pictures!
Moving along, to the northeast side of the park, across the road, is the(Tonami Tulip Gallery (チューリップ四季彩館, literally the "Four-Seasons Tulip Hall"). Here you can check out tulips throughout the year and buy tulip-related souvenirs and food. During the fair, this facility also houses odd dioramas with creepy sound effects, but maybe that was just for me...
Time and interest permitting, the park grounds are also home to the Tonami City Art Museum. During the fair, this building showcased five gigantic flower-blossom art pieces by local organizations (schools and military), none of which appeared to have any direct relation to anything. Depicted: cartoon master thief and ladies man Lupin, two stabs at grassroots Chiba Prefecture mascot Funasshī, a Love homage, and what appeared to be Pokemon. I'll leave it up to you, dear reader, to link each subject to a local community organization.
You're hungry! Go back to the west side of the park and find the food stalls, populated by ramen dealers, curry peddlers, and ice cream purveyors. We want the ice cream, because it's cold and rainy and 15°C, so choose from any one of the exotic flavors offered, of which "Toyama Black" (traditionally refers to a strong soy sauce flavor, but more bitter chocolate in this case), yuzu (a fragrant citrus fruit), and deep sea water are pictured. I heartily recommend the saltiness of the deep sea water. A tulip flavor is also available, but I don't recall it being very remarkable—besides, aren't tulips poisonous?
Catch a shuttle bus or walk back to Tonami Station, then grab a return train to Takaoka. The Jōhana Line isn't particularly well-served, so you'd do best to check the timetables and plan ahead, otherwise you could be in for a bit of a wait. If you do end up standing on the platform for a while, listen for the elaborate train-arrival song—a rural treat.