12 Memories of the Tourism Association: Mr. Susumu Asano, former manager of the Sunflower Tourism Center in Hokuryu Town

Looking back on memories of sightseeing in Hokuryu Town

Susumu Asano, former manager of the Sunflower Tourism Center in Hokuryu Town

At the Hokuryu Town Hall Employees and Residents Section, he organized participants from the senior citizens' club for the Cherry Blossom Festival; at Sunflower Park, as manager, he handled tourists; at the Planning Section Chief, he was in charge of the Tourism Association Secretariat; and at the Eiraku Garden Director, he organized sunflower viewing for the residents.
　
　
I would like to congratulate the Hokuryu-cho Sunflower Tourist Association on its 50th anniversary.

The town's sunflowers have been actively promoted as a tourism resource since the women's club of the agricultural cooperative started a campaign to plant one hectare of sunflowers per household.

In 1997, a sightseeing center was opened, and the area of "Sunflower Village" has been expanded year by year. As you know, in 2006, 2 million sunflowers bloomed in 23.1 minutes, making it a major tourist attraction visited by many tourists from home and abroad.

In 2009, I was commissioned to manage the Sunflower Tourism Center, and since then I have managed the Sunflower Festival for 40 days every year for 14 years until 2022.

During this period, many things happened every year, but one of my most memorable events was that of a child from Tokyo who had come to Sunflower sightseeing with his family and got lost. The parents did not show up, even though we checked inside and outside the building, so we asked the police to come and check the child's parents.

I did not check to see if everyone was on board and left without leaving the child, thinking the child was on both of the two cars. We finally got in touch with them after that, but it was a tough day.

On another occasion, a man who appeared to be a rich president flew in from Tokyo today and was looking forward to seeing the sunflowers because they were in full bloom on TV, but "they are not in bloom! I could only apologize to him at that time. I could do nothing but apologize.

I am sure there will be many challenges and problems in the future, but I hope that the townspeople will work together to welcome tourists.

Finally, I would like to congratulate you on the publication of the 50th anniversary commemorative magazine and wish for the continued growth of the Hokuryu-cho Sunflower Tourist Association.