[2025 Utsunomiya Attraction] Travel Guide for Utsunomiya Castle Ruins Park (Updated Apr)

#springwander As spring approaches, the cherry blossoms planted in the park begin to bloom. Kawazu cherry blossoms, drooping cherry blossoms, Somei Yoshino, Oyama cherry blossoms, etc. are at their best one after another. At the "Utsunomiya Castle Cherry Blossom Festival", which is held in conjunction with the flowering, kitchen cars are lined up in the square in the park, and many people are bustling with visitors. There is also a Japanese costume experience (free of charge) that lends ninja and town girl costumes for children, so it is perfect for taking pictures of one of your memories.

#FuriTabiWinter Located in the northern part of the Kanto region, it is an inland prefecture with no coastline on its borders ﹢﹒ ✦⊹﹒ ﹢﹒ ✦⊹﹒ ﹢﹒ ✦⊹﹒ ﹢﹒ ✦⊹﹒ ﹢﹒ ✦ ◼︎Mooka Railway Connects Chikusei City, Ibaraki Prefecture to Mogi Town, Tochigi Prefecture The steam locomotive-pulled "SL Mooka" operates on weekends and holidays throughout the year For details, please check the homepage ◼︎Dou Donut Cafe A cafe that serves handmade donuts on Momiji Street, a shopping street close to Tobu Utsunomiya Station ◼︎Ashikaga Flower Park A flower theme park in Ashikaga City You can enjoy flowers of all seasons ◼︎Utsunomiya Castle Site Park A park that restored the western half of the main citadel of Utsunomiya Castle During the Edo period, it was a place where the shogun would stay when visiting Nikko ◼︎Japanese Cuisine Mitsuwa Serves dishes made with carefully selected seasonal ingredients About 700m from Tobu Utsunomiya Station #Tochigi #TochigiTrip #TochigiTourism #TochigiTourism #Gourmet #GourmetTrip #Cafe #CafeHunting #DomesticTrip #GirlsTrip #SoloTrip

#thingstodo It's essentially a remnant of a feudal castle that is repurposed as a park, which is unique. Typically, Japanese cities and towns just simply let their castle ruins (those that didn't survive intact through the post-feudal and World War 2 eras) to rot. Here, instead of fully restoring the castle or raze it, they preserved the moat, enclosure walls, and guard towers as they are. The inner part of the castle, which is now an empty ground, becomes a public space, where the locals do sports and other recreational activities, and occasionally local festivals. Surprisingly, elevators were installed to access the wall rampart. The guard towers also house some artifacts of the feudal era, but by the time of my visit, it was off limits and not in display for public.