Kaze no Garden

In detail

A Green Crown Jewel

The Wind Garden is part of the extensive Prince Grand Resort Furano complex. It was created as the primary set for a 2008 television drama called Kaze no Gaaden Despite its manufactured origins, the Wind Garden was designed to look as organic and local as possible.

The Ueno Connection

Ueno Sayuki of Ueno Farm, another stop on the Hokkaido Garden Way, designed the layout here. Her design was based on an English country garden. There are flowering arches, trees, benches, and even a house, which in the show served as a second residence for the characters.

Original Roses

The Wind Garden has cultivated two original varieties of roses, which were named after characters on the show. They are in the Rose Garden, next to another area filled with wildflowers and grasses common to Hokkaido. Although these two areas were not part of the original TV show, they fit in naturally.

The Rustic Look

On one side of the garden is a small pen where goats are kept. While the goats do not roam around the place, the Wind Garden does have a rustic look. This contrasts starkly with its former existence as part of a golf course. From the original course, trees that separated the fairway and green from surrounding holes were kept, insulating the space and creating a natural oasis. Another part of the garden has a tiny pond with hundreds of dragonflies hovering over it.

From School to Garden

The writer of the original screenplay for the Kaze no Gaaden series was Kuramoto So. After the show became a hit, he established a drama school for scriptwriters and actors here called Furano Juku (Furano School). Two students that attended the school became the head gardeners here, although neither had set out to become a professional gardener. They cultivate 450 varieties of flowers in great profusion, including tulips, lupines, helenium, snowdrops, and phlox.

How and When to Visit

All visitors are driven between the hotel and the entrance to the garden. The Wind Garden therefore provides easy access to all the other Prince resort facilities and activities. Those include hot-air balloon ascents, Segway tours over the hills, and shopping and eating options at Ningle Terrace. Apparently small elves called “ningles” inhabit this area, and they come out at night to tidy up the resort and garden.

The Wind Garden is open daily between late April and mid-October from morning to evening. Please follow this link [link to What to Do page] to find out what you can do at the Wind Garden.