We took a road trip to Cowra and Canberra during the Cowra Japanese Garden Sakura Festival as well as Floriade.

We started in the morning, stopped by at McDonalds in Blaxland for a coffee break, then had lunch at Pantano’s at Bathurst.

After lunch, we noticed the trees at King’s Parade and War Memorial are in full bloom, so we could not help stopping for a short time to take some photos. We also went to the nearby Machattie Park and walked back via the Court House.

As we approached Cowra, we saw many canola fields, so we stopped by to take some photos.

Arriving at Cowra, we stopped by at Sakura Avenue to admire the beautiful cherry blossoms.

We also stopped by briefly at the Japanese War Cemetery. Over 200 Japanese prisoners died whilst attempting the Cowra Breakout in August 1944 have been buried here and members of the RSL maintained the cemeteries post war as a sign of respect which touched the Japanese people. It is now designated as an official Japanese war cemetery and those buried here numbered over 500 including those who died of other causes during internment and those who died elsewhere (for example during the Darwin bombing). I noticed the number of graves have lessened over the years, possibly due to repatriation by their families.

We had dinner at the Imperial Hotel Cowra - wow the serving sizes here are gigantic. I could barely finish half my steak and couldn’t have any of the chips. Each meal could easily be shared by 2 people. It was delicious. Afterwards we tried to paint the town pink by walking down main street. Two publicans came out to chat with us - I think they were intrigued to see a group of Asian ladies.