Early Autumn at Showa Kinen Park

The kids were out for fall break this past week.  Since their school holiday schedule does not follow the Japanese school holidays, we headed out to Showa Kinen Park (国営昭和記念公園 and in wikipedia) in the west Tokyo suburbs about an hour west of central Tokyo.  It used to be part of the nearby Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) at Tachikawa Air Base and was established in 1983 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Emperor Showa's reign. It's a very large park for Tokyo at 163.0 hectare.

This park is full of interesting natural wonders and features a variety of large flower beds.  This month, cosmos are featured.

Here are some more cosmos taken in camera with an impressionistic style in mind. The post processing was limited to adjust levels, balancing colors and contrast. The blur is from fill flash freezing the image and my hand swinging the camera towards the flowers.

Some of the more interesting play structures include bouncing domes or sea of clouds (雲の海）, rainbow hammocks, and a playground full of sea monsters.

More Nanoblocks - Tokyo Skytree

I'm not sure why my Nanoblocks post is the third most viewed post on my blog, but I'll post another to see what happens...

I spotted these nanoblocksof the Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリータウン) along the shopping street that leads up to Sensō-ji in Asakusa.  The Skytree is set to open in Spring  2012.

Here's one display with the Tokyo Tower and the Kaminari-mon (gate of Sensoji Temple).

Here's the real thing viewed through the clutter of telephone pole wire and cables in Asakusa.

Best Kakigōri

On Saturday, we took a Sumida River Cruise from Hinode Pier to Asakusa.  After a little wandering around Asakusa and Sensoji Temple with the family, the sight and smell of the food stalls, got us hungry and were drawn to this shop selling soft cream and kakigōri (or shaved ice).  They also sold soba and tempura, but we weren't interested in having those at the time.

The bowls of kakigōri are huge!  My wife had strawberry with condensed milk. Her verdict was that it was the best ever, even better than Aoki, Matsumoto or Waiola Shave Ice in Oahu.

I tried the caramel soft cream. It was great!.

Check out the list of flavors! They included sesame, mango, almond jelly, azuki bean, rum raison, ramune, caramel, green tea, and others.

Lycoris or Red Spider Lily

Not much to say, but that these beautiful Lycoris (or Red Spider Lilies) are in bloom at Komazawa Olympic Park (駒沢オリンピック公園).

Ranume Soft Serve at Komazawa Koen

After a long bout with a hacking cough, I made it out to Komazawa Olympic Park with the family on Sunday.    I was hoping for kuro goma (black sesame seed) soft cream from the same concession we visited previously, but is was not to be.  It seems that this shop my rotate their ice cream flavors.  I settled for the less interesting but delicious, cookies and cream.

However, my son was unusually adventurous and tried the ラムネ(RA-MU-NE or lemonade).

This concession had on offer, berry-berry & yogurt and the more unusual CALPIS flavor.