The vicious gnomes of Shinrin Koen

We have a great park, Shinrin Koen, about an hours drive away, it really has something for everyone, whether you are a dog lover, a family with small kids, tweens or keen explorers, there is something to jeep every family member happy.

Last time we went, we tried out hand at orienteering, this time we just rocked up and wandered. We kept seeing these little gnomes and what started out as one or two daft pictures anded up as a whole series...

I'm going to print the photos out and see if Ebi-kun will write a story to go with them. He is very much on a maths kick at the moment so I'm not sure if there will be much interest, we will see.

And the buggers have learned to drive now....

No end of amusement! And now when we think about this particular day at the park, it will be remembered for the vicious gnomes... you have been warned!

Bambi eat your heart out...

The next town over has just opened a new ice-rink, so we thought we'd go and try it out. Ebi-kun has only skated once before and that was at a tiny rink in the UK for about 30 minutes (most of that time was spent on his arse) 

The rink is great, you pay for your skate hire then it is all self service and they have tubs full of helmets which I think is a brilliant idea (after seeing a lad get his head cut open with a skate, it's definitely a great idea!)

Took him quite some time to find his feet as it were. There are actually two rinks, a big one and a smaller one which is where they were holding lessons when we arrived but that got opened up to the public an hour or so later. I fell on my knees at one stage, no thanks to Ebi-kuns Bambi like technique and a week later I still have two cracking bruises to show for it!

Pictures may speak a thousand words but videos just make you want to pee your pants laughing....

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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