Our 66th entry in this blog is our trip to Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan.  This has always been my favorite park ever since I set foot on this park way back … hmmm… I even can’t remember. Haha!  Well, probably way back year 2007, my first years in Japan.  And this time, it is Ate Rei and Sai’s first time in this park, and first time to ride a bike with me and Papa Dave.  We arrived quite late, around lunch time, so we need to hurry up and bike the area around before the sun starts to set.

“Showa Memorial Park (Shōwa Kinen Kōen) is a park in the city of Tachikawa, 30 minutes from central Tokyo by train. Spanning over 160 hectares, this huge park boasts a variety of natural spaces, seasonal flowers, water features, museums and sports facilities. The park was opened in 1983 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Emperor Showa’s reign.” -https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3034_showa.html

“Getting around the park is best done by rental bicycle. Rental outlets are located at the multiple park entrances and charge 410 yen for three hours or 520 yen for the entire day. Bicycles allow visitors to easily traverse the park via the extensive bike-only track network. Alternatively, there is a park train (on wheels) that connects the different areas of the park for 310 yen per ride.” -https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3034_showa.html

We enjoyed most of the time with picnics and playing bubbles and Frisbees.  Here we have Sai enjoying the Frisbee game with Papa Dave, while baby Rachel here enjoyed walking around.  By the way, our guests for today is still Tita Joana and Tito RC with Rai Rai and baby Rachel, and also Tita Joni.

And of course, we will not end our day and our visit to this huge park if we will not go to at least one of the many play areas.  Here we have Sai, Ate Rei, and Rai Rai enjoying the swing, and the many forms of slides.

Next we have the white mountain trampoline play area.  One of the kids’ favorite as well.  Here we have our little Sai already tired of playing and jumping around and just layed down to rest. Hehe.  I was not able to picture the entire thing but this is a big play facility.  But there is still a much bigger trampoline somewhere in this park, where adults usually jump around and relive their childhood days. 🙂

Here is the gang with bikes ready to go to another area, the net play area.  It is now starting to get dark.  We need to return the bikes by 3:30pm. Huhuhu…

“An array of seasonal flowers grow in the park, the most prominent of which are nanohana (rapeseed), tulips and tsutsuji (azalea). Poppies are also abundant and cover the picturesque Flower Hill in the park’s northeast corner. The different flowers reach peak bloom at different times, but late spring to early summer is generally the best time for flower viewing with the park’s annual flower festival taking place from late March to May.” -https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3034_showa.html
And the sun is already about to set.  We have returned our bikes and did some last minute photos before leaving the park.

So that was our short stay at the park, maybe only about 4 hours or less.  But we surely enjoyed it.  I think we only covered 1/4 of the park’s areas.  There are still a lot in store for us for our next visit soon. 🙂