Kawachi Wisteria Garden

Earth displays its color range at numerous sites, from geological formations to human-built environments. The selection includes locations on six continents, where natural processes or cultural traditions have resulted in prominent visual displays. The Danxia mountains in China's Gansu province show layered sedimentary rock formations in reds, oranges and yellows, while Arizona's Painted Desert derives its colors from iron oxides and other minerals. Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring owes its concentric bands of color to heat-loving bacteria that thrive in different temperature zones of the water. The Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize reaches a depth of 407 feet (124 meters), providing a deep blue contrast to the surrounding turquoise shallows. Various communities have marked their built environment with distinctive color palettes. Chefchaouen in Morocco's Rif Mountains displays blue walls throughout its medina. Jodhpur in Rajasthan uses blue paint that originally marked Brahmin residences. Cape Town's Bo-Kaap presents houses in yellows, pinks, greens and blues, while Buenos Aires' La Boca neighborhood has corrugated metal facades in bright colors. Copenhagen's Nyhavn shows 17th and 18th century townhouses along the canal in reds, oranges, yellows and other hues. Scarborough's beach huts on the English coast offer a smaller scale of residential color. Water features contribute to the variety. China's Jiuzhaigou lakes display blues and greens due to calcium carbonate and algae. Tanzania's Lake Natron turns red to pink because of microorganisms living in its alkaline water. Pena Palace on a hilltop near Sintra, Portugal, combines yellow and red facades. Copacabana on Bolivia's Lake Titicaca offers whitewashed buildings with colorful accents. Hitsujiyama Park in Chichibu presents fields of phlox in pinks, whites and purples, while Kitakyushu's Kawachi Fuji Gardens feature wisteria tunnels. Even Longyearbyen on Svalbard displays colored wooden houses against Arctic landscapes.

This collection brings together locations that challenge the norms of conventional tourism. It offers the chance to discover places where nature, history, and human activities have created astonishing sites: a complex of 732 unfinished villas in Turkey, a Mexican island where hundreds of dolls are hung in trees, a Canadian lake with mineral-formed multicolored basins, and a Polish forest of 400 pines with mysteriously bent trunks facing north. The route also includes unique human-made creations, such as an art installation representing an isolated Prada store in the Texas desert, or the Japanese village of Nagoro where an artist populated the streets with 350 dolls after the residents left. Geological phenomena are also featured, including Darvaza crater in Turkmenistan, which has been burning continuously since 1971, the Great Blue Hole in Belize, a 124-meter-deep underwater cavity, and Colombia’s Caño Cristales river that changes color to red, yellow, and green from July to November. These destinations provide a different perspective on our planet and invite exploration of lesser-known facets of our world.

These botanical paths feature beech trees, cherry blossoms, bamboo, maple and oak trees. The branches form natural vaults over roads, paths and railway lines. Some were deliberately planted, others developed over decades. The tunnels provide shade in summer and change their appearance with the seasons.