26 May 2026
Most people flocked to Niseko resort area during the winter ski season for their very light, dry powder snow. Niseko's ski season typically runs from late November to early May. In late May, the ski season is over and the whole area transitions into a quiet, beautiful and green landscape. People may still come to this part of Hokkaido for rafting, golf, biking and hiking.
For us, we came to see Mr. Mishima's Garden in Kutchan where a vibrant blanket of pink moss phlox (shibazakura) blooms against the snow-capped Mount Yotei in late May.
The garden is a private residence that opens for free to the public. Due to the popularity, visitors flock to the garden. Being a private residential area, there are not much parking spaces. Temporary car parks were set up a few hundred meters away from the garden for visitors.
The weather during this time in Hokkaido was perfect for outdoor activity. We enjoyed the short walk to the garden.
We had seen an entire hillside covered with moss phlox in Takinoue a few days earlier. See this post: Hill of Pink at Takinoue Shibazakura Koen Park.
But this garden is something else!
The garden spans over 4,000 square meters. It was created by Mr. Kazuo Mishima, a retired local farmer. He spent decades hand-planting each tiny seedling to create his masterpiece that draws plenty of visitors every spring.
The colours of the tiny flowers came in white, pink, and purple.
We spent some time to take photos of the landscape and the flowers. We also hunt for some lucky flowers. The flowers usually have 5 petals. It is considered lucky, very lucky or very very lucky to find flowers with 4, 6 or 7 petals.
My wife was super lucky to spot this 4-petal white moss phlox flower.
She also spotted the 6-petal and 7-petals flowers side-by-side! Super Super Super lucky!
I think the shibazakura garden here is more photogenic with Mount Yotei in the background.
Compared to Takinoue’s Shibazakura Koen Park, this garden is much smaller but this is very pretty too and is definitely worth a visit. Personally, I think the shibazakura garden here is more photogenic with Mount Yotei in the background.
From Kutchan, we drove about 20 minutes to the Niseko Takahashi Farm. This place draws visitors in all season.
Hokkaido is famous in Japan for its fresh cow milk and the Niseko Takahashi Dairy Farm is a great place to taste some fresh, local milk products. There are also a couple of restaurants in the farm.
We had our late lunch in the Niseko Takahashi Dairy Farm Restaurant PRATIVO. The restaurant’s menu prioritizes using plenty of ingredients from Niseko and is mostly Western cuisine. We ordered the baked rice and Bolognese pasta. The portion size is not large but they are very delicious and value for money.
The restaurant provides panoramic views of Mount Yotei from every seat inside.
Bolognese pasta with Hokkaido pork and beef.
While having my lunch, I noticed that they were plenty of yellow flowers outside. These are dandelions. I told my wife that they would make good photos with Mount Yotei in the background.
Snapping photos of the yellow dandelions flowers after lunch.
Yellow dandelions against the Mount Yotei backdrop.
A bright red tractor is also quite photogenic against the blue sky with patchy cloud formation.
A haystack for the photographer.
A good place to have dessert after lunch is at the Niseko Takahashi Dairy Farm MILK KOBO. They serve a wide array of sweets using fresh milk directly from their own farm including many flavors of ice cream, cakes, yogurt, milkshakes & tarts. It is claimed that the variety of delicious sweets were made with milk that were freshly squeezed from the local cows the same morning.
Niseko Takahashi Dairy Farm MILK KOBO.
The most popular item at Milk Kobo is the custard-packed cream puff. We bought the highly raved cream puffs and cheese tarts. The fillings in the cream puffs were quite watery and we had to be careful not to let the creamy goodness drip onto the floor. Thankfully boxes of paper tissues were freely available on the table top to mop up any spillage.
The highly delicious cream puffs and cheese tarts from Niseko Takahashi Dairy Farm MILK KOBO.
The fillings in the puff pastry could be a little thicker.
Enjoying our sweets and coffee with a nice view.
Mishima-san’s Shibazakura Garden and Niseko Takahashi Farm were the only two places that we visited in the Niseko resort area before checking in to Ki Niseko Hotel, our accommodation for one night.
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