- October 15th, 2019
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[Gyokusen Hall Ruins Park in Iwamizawa] Fall Foliage Spot That A Combination of Autumn Leaves and Pond Is Great
CONTENTS
Gyokusen Hall Ruins Park
Gyokusen Hall Ruins Park (玉泉館跡地公園) is a Japanese garden park in Iwamizawa city located in the northeastern direction of Sapporo city, and is near Higashiyama Park (東山公園) and Hokkaido University of Education Iwamizawa Campus (北海道教育大学岩見沢校). The garden is well-known for enjoying seasonal flowers and plants, and is popular with local people. Especially, the park is famous for cherry blossom spot and fall foliage spot. The best season of the cherry blossoms is about from early May to mid May. The best season of the fall foliage is about from mid October to late October. The park is closed during a winter season.
This place used to be known as a hot spring place in Ainu period because hot springs gushed out. In 1903, Yamabato-no-Yutei (山鳩の湯亭), a Japanese restaurant and ryokan, started a business, and its name was renamed as Gyokusen Hall in 1904. The reason was that round hot spring like a ball was gused out with methane gas. I supposed that they decided to rename their ryokan because previous name was not suitable for the ryokan’s name. A Japanese garden was built at the site, and the garden has been kept well. The onsen ryokan has been closed down since 1979, and the garden has been opened to the public as a park since 2001. A tea house, gazebos, a restroom and a parking lot are built at the site, and a park manager is stationed, too.
Famous tourist attractions in the Iwamizawa are Hokkaido Greenland Amusement Park (北海道グリーンランド遊園地), Iwamizawa Park Rose Garden (いわみざわ公園バラ) and Taisho Pond (大正池), and the Tonebetsu River (利根別川) is well-known as a good place to see the cherry blossoms. Speaking of tasty restaurants in the Iwamizawa, Ganso Nama-somen Menmen (元祖 生そうめん めんめん), Oton Shokudo (おとん食堂), Hand-made Soba Fukusho (手打ちそば 福松), Yakitori Mifune (やきとり 三船) and North Farm Stock (ノースファームストック) are popular in particular. I ate foods at the Mifune. Except the Mifune, I ate foods at Kirin (希林), Miraitei (未来亭), Tengumanju Honpo (天狗まんじゅう本舗) and Akai Ribbon (赤いリボン), and those were tasty. By the way, an express bus “Kosoku Iwamizawa-go (高速いわみざわ号)” runs between the Sapporo to the Iwamizawa.
Buckwheat Noodles with Roasted Chicken Giblets of Kirin
Kirin (希林) is a popular buckwheat noodles restaurant in Iwamizawa city. Iwamizawa city is famous for a barbecued chicken (焼き鳥) and roasted chicken giblets (もつ焼き). There are some restaurants that visitors can eat those. Therefore I visited here to eat buckwheat noodles with the roasted chicken giblets (もつそば). It is usually a business start at 11:00. However, They started business at 11:30 today. There was 1 group of preceding visitor. Read More
Grilled Chicken Giblets on Skewers of Mifune
Mifune (三船) is a popular Yakiroti shop in Iwamizawa city, and was founded in 1965. My friend’s father came from Iwamizawa, and he seems to eat grilled chicken giblets on skewers if his family return home. Iwamizawa is famous for the grilled chicken giblets on skewers as well as Bibai, too. It is Mifune that my friend recommended. A business started at 15:00. There were already 3 groups of visitors at counter seats when I entered here at 15:00 after a noren was hung at an entrance of the Yakitori shop. It will be evidence loved by local people. A certain old man ate a barbecued chicken and ate buckwheat noodles, and he received the grilled chicken to go. He went home at 15:10. Only 10 minutes passed after starting business. It was too early to go home! Read More
Miraitei
Miraitei is a restaurant near Iwamizawa city office abd is famous for extremely large portion of dishes. I was recommended by my friend and visited here around 16:00 on weekdays. Still the restraunt was not crowded, but there were 4 groups of preceding visitors. I was surprised at their quantity of the dishes. All dishes were extremely large portion of the dishes. They will serve the extremely large portion of dishes for growing students because there are many high schools and a university near here. Read More
Tengu Manju Honpo
Tengu Manju Honpo (天狗まんじゅう本舗) is a long-established manju (steam bun) shop in Iwamizawa city located in the northeastern direction of Sapporo city and was founded in 1951. Tengu Manju (天狗まんじゅう) is popular and is said to be local specialty sweets of Iwamizawa. They have 2 branch shop, and I visited Ekimae branch shop renewed in 2014. There is a building near Iwamizawa station. A place for custmers to enjoy foods and drinks is provided at the building, too, and free tea can be drunken. Read More
Akai Ribbon
Akai Ribbon Head Office (赤いリボン本店) is a pastry shop in Iwamizawa city, and was founded in 1979. It features cakes using maple syrup, and Baumkuchen and Maple Leaf Pie are famous. I heard from my older sister that cakes were tasty, and I visited here. After asking a waitress recommendation, she replied “Berry Tart (ベリータルト)”. The price was JPY 410. Read More
Look of Gyokusen Hall Ruins Park
Shinji Pond (心字池) is at the site, and islands such as Nakajima Island (中島) float on the surface of the pond. Walks are provided around the pond, and the tea house, stones that are used for making waterfalls (滝石組 * Takiishigumi), ruins of a hot spring well (温泉井戸跡), a large stone lantern, a stone tower and so on are built. In addition, Taiko Bridge (太鼓橋) and Yatsu Bridge (八ッ橋) cross the pond, so visitors can visit the islands. I guess that it takes about 30 minutes to go around on foot. The site area is 17,500 m2. About 1,800 trees are planted at the site. The park is just a Japanese garden.
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My visited season was mid October. I visited here to enjoy fall foliage on a weekday. The park was not crowded with visitors. But it is crowded with tourists on weekends during a fall foliage season. The Shinji Pond occupied the park seems to look like a shape of Shin (心) in Kanji. A lot of photogenic places are around the pond.
Visitors can go to the Nakajima Island through bridges. The Tea House Gyokusenan (茶室「玉泉庵」) is built, and everyone can use the tea house if they make a reservation. Amission is JPY 5,000 per 4 hours. So I suppose that tourists are not allow to enter it freely. But around here has a lot of beautiful fall foliage, and a conbination of evergreen trees and autumn leaves is very good, so I think that visitors enjoy themselves.
Movie of Gyokusenan
Movie of Gyokusen Hall Ruins Park
| Admission fee | Free of charge |
|---|---|
| Parking lot | Free parking is provided (35 Cars) |
| Business hours | 09:00-17:30 |
| Regular closing day | From November 4 to April 28 |
| Telephone number | +81-126-25-6400 |
| Home page | Home page is here |
| Mapcode | 180 064 641*45 |
List of Accommodations
Refer to following websites for the accommodations in the Iwamizawa. You can get information regarding online reviews and photos.
A page of Hokkaido Fall Foliage is here
Hokkaido Fall Foliage
By the way, Club Tourism (クラブツーリズム), a Japanese tour travel agency, provides various types of tours such as day trip tours or ordinary tours. In the case of bus tours, tourists do not drive their cars themselves, so they can savor alcohol. Choosen tourist attractions are national parks such as Rishiri and Rebun, Shiretoko, and popular tourist places such as Furano and Biei, and some activities such as hiking and fruit picking are also enjoyed depending on seasons. If you are interested in tour trips, you should visit the club tourism's website for details.
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