Cosmos and Kochia Festa

Through October a hill inside Expo '70 Commemorative Park at Suita, on the northern edge of Osaka, is given over to autumn flowers. The park stands on the grounds of the 1970 world exposition, and the slope used for this is called the Hill of Flowers, in the part of it laid out as a garden.

About 150,000 cosmos are planted, in several kinds: the mixed colours of the Sensation strain, the white of Sensation White, and the orange-yellow of the kibana cosmos, which is a different species.

Among them stand about 3,600 kochia, the round bushes also called summer cypress. They are green through the summer and turn deep red in October, and they are set out in rows down the slope.

The north side of the hill carries other things. Muhlenbergia, a grass that throws up a haze of pink flower heads, is the one people photograph most; walking into it is not allowed, and a few places are cut into the planting to stand in instead. Red buckwheat grows there as well, its flowers red rather than the usual white.

A good deal is arranged around the flowering, and most of it changes from year to year. In 2026 the hill has a market of bakers and lunch sellers from the surrounding towns on four of the weekends, food stalls on many other days, a brass band playing in a square of plane trees a few minutes away, workshops in a tent, and a paid session with a photographer for anyone who wants a picture taken among the flowers.

The path up to the hill has been made into a work of its own. Two artists working under the name PRO have marked the route with leaves eaten through by caterpillars, as a trail to follow to the top.

The festival itself is free. Entry to the park's Natural and Cultural Garden and Japanese Garden costs 450 yen for high school age and above, and is free for junior high age and below.