2010年11月1日月曜日

Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa in western Tokyo

 About 5.5 million flowers, "autumn cherry blossoms (秋桜)"or cosmos, fully bloomed in Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa, western Tokyo on 24 th of October. It was chilly and cloudy Saturday but a large number of people like us came to see them. It took about 20 minutes on foot to go to Cosmos Hill from a main entrance of the park near Tachikawa Station. It's a huge park, about 40 times the size of Tokyo Dome Baseball Stadium, and its land was occupied by U.S. military.  Tachikawa, a once U.S. military base town, I found, has now changed to a modern residential one with department stores, restaurants, boutiques and the beautiful park, as well.
 After taking photos in Cosmos Hill my Spanish guest and I walked around Japanese Garden and playgrounds for children. She was very annoyed by the loud sound of airplanes and helicopters that flew over almost every hour, and asked me why. The sound made me realize that the base maybe still here.

Showa Kinen Park: http://www.showakinenpark.go.jp/english/index.htm



A sun clock

Cosmos Hill




Japanese Garden



A play ground full of kids