Why a Japanese City Had to Mow Over 800,000 Peak-Bloom Tulips

People get a little crazy around blooming flowers.

I went to school in Washington, D.C. for four years, and walked down to the National Mall for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival for each one of them. I recall a stunning willingness amongst strangers to elbow each other into the Tidal Basin if it meant getting a better picture. Last year, you might remember, thousands of tourists descended on Southern California’s Walker Canyon, to shoot selfies amidst the bright orange poppy fields. The event went by the name #superbloom on social media, and visitors were so intent on securing the perfect selfie, they began stomping all over the same flowers they’d come to admire.

It was with a heavy heart, then, but with an accurate understanding of how 21st-century human beings behave, that a Japanese city mowed straight over 800,000 tulips earlier this week.

Sakura, located in Chiba Prefecture, hosts a flower festival each year, similar to the Netherlands’ Keukenhof Gardens, and even has an authentic Dutch windmill on its grounds. Over 100 different varieties of flowers recently reached peak bloom, and despite quarantine mandates, locals were spotted on the grounds as late as April 11 looking for the perfect photo.

You can sort of understand their rationale — a field of colorful flowers is much preferred to another eight-hour WFH day in front of the laptop, but fields, parks trailheads and tulip gardens are closed for a very good reason right now. In order to make damn certain trespassers didn’t come back, officials decided to quit on the flowers.

Add them to a growing list of things to look forward to in 2021.

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