Water Play Shinrin Park – One of the better (non-swimming-pool) water play areas in Saitama is in Shinrin Park. There are two separate places you can play with water in Shinrin Park, both near the West Gate where most of the children’s facilities are. The “Mori no Oasis” is aRead More →
Starlight Illumination Shinrin park – is the last of the three annual night illumination displays held in the central gate area of the vast park. This year, 2020, it will run from Saturday December 5th. It used to run until January, but for the last couple of years it has beenRead More →
Autumn Leaves Light up Shinrin Park – Also known as Musashi Kyuryo National Goverment Park, Shinrin Park is a 304 hectare park in Namegawa, rural Saitama. You can enjoy night illumination here at the central gate area, three different times during autumn and winter annually. The Halloween Night Light up isRead More →
“Treeing” is what they call tree climbing with ropes in Japan. It is a very popular event that is carried out periodically in Shinrin Park in Namegawa. Due to the coronavirus, the event was cancelled for a couple of months. However, the next dates for this treeing activity in ShinrinRead More →
Forest Villa is the latest initiative from Shinrin Park. I have to say, they are great at coming up with ways to get people to revisit the park multiple times! The Forest Villa event is essentially a day camp. You can rent a tent by the cockscomb fields between theRead More →
The plumed cockscomb, also known as Celosia, (Keito in Japanese) are a relatively recent addition to Shinrin Park. In the inaugural year they had about 50,000, but now there are approximately 500,000. So many events are cancelled this year, 2020, on account of the Coronavirus outbreak. However, this event andRead More →
Summer flowers around the central gate of Shinrin Park, Namegawa, in 2020. The weather forecast predicted a cloudy day, not ideal for photographing flowers, but great for avoiding sunburn and sunstroke. I thought it would comfortable weather for a five kilometre walk to take in the summer flowers in ShinrinRead More →
Happy Spring Park – Shinrin Park is Saitama’s largest and arguably best park. However, it is also one of the few that charge you to enter. Most of their activities cost extra too. It was Japan’s first national park, constructed as part of a Meiji centennial project. It’s official name isRead More →
Mushi Mushi Museum – Every year Shinrin Park have a small beetle museum in the West Gate Building. Until 2020 it was always over the summer, but this year it is opening in February! However, due to COVID-19 it was suspended on March 1st 2020. Currently, they have a noteRead More →
January flowers, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. A week in photos. January 2020 week one. I say it often, because it is true, but my favorite month in Japan is January. There is so much to do in Japan in January. And as it is one of the driest months of theRead More →