The place to experience the pleasure of losing yourself among these yellow flowers
This year they have been made to beg, like the heat. Its 30 days of flowering usually take place between mid-May and mid-June, and yet the sunflowers of Carmona ( Seville ) are beginning to show themselves now in their maximum splendor. Even they have spent years pilgrimage thousands of japanese tourists who seek to lose themselves among the hundreds of acres of these yellow carpets They usually reach 1.5 meters in height.
From the Carmona Tourist Office They explain to Traveler.es that they cannot determine the exact number of Japanese tourists who visit them annually, since not all pass through their facilities.
This year they have been made to pray
In fact, only those who do not travel in a group usually do it and come individually. “We usually ask them for a taxi to take them to see the most beautiful sunflower fields” at that time, since they are on the outskirts of the town.
However, they can locate the moment when this pilgrimage began. They say that about 15 years ago they began to receive Japanese travelers who wanted visit or stay at the Parador that stands on the ruins of the fortress of King Don Pedro . At that time, the tourists who arrived told them about some very popular cartoons on Japanese television in which the story of this king was told. Over time, They also began to ask about the sunflowers that appeared in the tourist guide of Spain that they used.
“The truth is that it is very difficult to explain the reasons or the reason for the taste for this flower in Japan. There is no specific reason, but surely many anecdotes about it. What is certain is that we Japanese love flowers and nature”, tells Traveler.es Hajime Kishi, from the ** JNTO ** (Japan Tourism Office).
"The sunflower for the Japanese is a flower that symbolizes summer, holiday season, sunny and hot weather (…) . Also the erect and majestic bearing of the flowers makes it for some people a flower related to love, particularly to propose or request in marriage. It is the quintessential flower and the spectacular nature of a field full of sunflowers under the sun and the blue sky is an image that attracts all Japanese alike”.
Furthermore, Hajime Kishi emphasizes the constant presence of sunflowers in Japanese cinema and animated films. "This fact further strengthens the image of this flower or the sunflower fields."
They reach 1.5 meters in height
The enumeration of examples of it begins, however, with the Italian Sunflowers and the images of the fields that he already showed to the Japanese public in the decade of 70's ; to go on to quote Japanese films such as " Himawaribatake (field of sunflowers) or be with you (Ima aini ikimasu or Now I'm Going to See You), the 2004 Japanese original film by Nobuhiro Doi based on the romance novel by Takuji Ichikawa or, more recently, in 2017, Himawari batake nite (In the field of sunflowers), by Kenji Azaki”.
And, if we take into account that sunflower in Japanese is 'Himawari' ('Hi' = sun; 'mawari' = turning), it probably comes to mind the flirtatious and clever sister of Shin Chan or one of the female characters in the Naruto series , Himawari Uzumaki.
Sunflower fields of Carmpona