Adventures in Oji - paper museum

After our adventures in Nippori, we hopped back on the train to Oji, which is just a couple of stops away. It's the first time I have been there. We were starving and so wanted to grab some lunch. I have to admit, I always find looking for somewhere to eat always stresses me out somewhat. At the station there were the usual suspects, MacDonalds, Sukiya, chain coffee shops... Then we spotted Little Mermaid. Turned out to be a Dutch cafe, lovely sandwiches and pastries, totally hit the mark.

With our bellies filled we headed off to find the museum. Ebi-kun wanted to get on the tram but I had no idea where they went but then he spotted the monorail instead.

Of course, I had no idea where this was going either but figured it wouldn't be too long. The fella at the bottom made us sit down, when I asked where to buy a ticket, he told us it was free - even better. Well, I have to say, it would have been quicker to walk up the stairs! The monorail is about 50m long, the kids all thought it was fun though!

The Paper Museum is a 5 minute walk through the park, right next to the kids playground. When you get in, there is a ticket machine to your left, the instructions are in English too. We got there just in the nick of time to make out own postcards.

The first fella was trying to explain everything in very broken English, we had to tell him to use Japanese in the end. They must get a lot of tourists in Oji because everyone tried to use English on us, it was quite weird for me!

The process was fun and you get to choose an image to watermark your postcard with, Ebi-kun picked out Tokyo Sky Tree and I picked the panda.

The process only took 5-10 minutes and the staff were really friendly.

There isn't that much English as far as explanations go but there is a very detailed handout when you arrive. The second floor has a lot of hands on stuff and was quite interesting.

I spotted this in the display section and thought it would make a fun activity. You could use family members photos and make different wigs for them.

Of course, Ebi-kun wanted to have a play in the park before we left. Looks like a nice little park, lots of kids running around.

We had a lovely day and finished off after the park by buying new shoes for Ebi-kun, his old ones had a hole in them. He has yet to grow out of a pair of shoes, he just wears them out!

Two Great Parks In Saitama in A Day

Yesterday was a national holiday, so we decided to do some exploring and visit a couple of parks that we hadn't been to before. They are actually right next to each other so we parked at one and just crossed the road to get to the other.

We started off at Kuwamoto Sun Green Park and tried our hand at putting golf...

By the time we had finished it was getting to lunch time so we crossed over to the other park, which is a park and agriculture centre, they have an udon shop and  a pizza place, we opted for udon. Cheap and cheerful. There is also plenty of space to have a picnic, if you are more organized than us!

After lunch we had a wander around the farm area. We came across this statue which is a kind of sun dial, as it was autumn equinox the sun shines through the hole at 12pm and hits the stone at the back which then reflects then sun that points to one of the other stones. Sounds quite cool, shame we found out about it an hour after the fact! 

You can also do fruit and veg picking, there wasn't much going on when we were there, maybe the wrong season but there are lots of types of fruit trees to take a look at. Lots of bugs too..

The park also has a woodwork room where it looks like they hold classes, I imagine you have to book ahead, and a study a hall, inside was this big lion which had been made by students of the local high school.

There was plenty of green space to play and picnic plus picnic benches and some climbing equipment, Ebi-kun doesn't look so high up here but it was actually a VERY tall pole!

After all that exploring it was time for ice-cream! Delicious, highly recommend the mint-choc chip.

We then headed back to the first park and played on the silly bikes. You buy a ticket for 30 minutes and there are loads of different styles of 'bikes' to choose from, you can do one lap of the circuit then swap for something else.

It was a lot of fun, Ebi-kun got on this one you have to jump up and down to make it go forward, the last stretch was a bit of a killer for him!

Ebi-kun and Daddy racing, I was having trouble keeping up in my slow panda bike!

We had a bit of a wander around the rest of the park, there is a mini train and over in the other park a mini steam train - I'm sure many a little boy loves it! The weather was gorgeous, I love this time of year in Japan.

We finished off in the 'Magic House' which was ermmm OK, lots of tricks using mirrors and the such like, it was funny but not really worth the ¥200 if you as me.

All in all, it was a fab day and we had a load of fun, lots of laughing, which is what it's all about.

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