Tokiwa Koen Park (Yamaguchi)

Tokiwa Koen Park is a comprehensive park with abundant nature located on the shore of Tokiwa Lake, only about a five-minute drive from the Yamaguchi-Ube Airport. The vast premises are equipped with a greenhouse, a zoo, an amusement park, and a museum. The park has also been chosen as one of the 100 Urban Parks of Japan and one of Japan's Top 100 Famous Cherry Blossom Places, and visitors can enjoy a variety of colorful flowers such as cherry blossoms, Japanese irises, hydrangeas, and azaleas.
The Tokiwa Museum section of the park is known as a museum of greenery, flowers, and sculptures. The UBE Biennale Sculpture Hill that can be found here is used as a venue for an international outdoor sculpture competition, and the beautiful sculptures are displayed in harmony with nature. Also in this section is the Plant Museum, which was created with "traveling the world, an inspiring greenhouse" as its concept. Inside, visitors can see rare plants from around the world, including carnivorous plants and blooming cacti with beautiful flowers. Next to the Plant Museum is the Peony Garden, in which there is a 150-year-old thatched-roof folk house that has been repaired and opened as a rest house. From here, visitors can sit on tatami mats and relax while looking out at the old-fashioned Japanese-style teien garden blooming with tree peonies and Chinese peonies.
When visiting the park, also make sure not to miss the Coal Mining Museum, created and developed by the coal industry in order to pass down the history of Ube to future generations. Inside the museum are models that show the layouts of the tunnels of underwater coal mines as well as exhibits about coal mine residences and the people of the past. The observation deck, marked by its red and white tower, was created from the relocation of shaft turrets, and from it visitors can look out and see Tokiwa Lake, the townscape of Ube, and even as far as the Seto Inland Sea, Kyushu, and the mountains of Shikoku.
Recommended for families traveling together is the zoo, which houses mainly primates such as lar gibbons, and the on-site amusement park. The park bustles with people even in winter, when one of the largest illumination events in western Japan, Tokiwa Fantasia, is held.