Showa Kinen Koen

Ah, Showa Memorial Park. Or Showa, as people on base usually say. Abbey was confused by the name. She thought "Showa" meant there would be a "show" and was wondering where the singers and dancers were... According to my 30 seconds of internet research, it is named after the former Emperor Showa because of his love of nature, and the park used to be a Japanese air base. This huge park is not far away, and has lots of open green space (rare in the Tokyo suburbs) and different activities- row boats, playground areas, bike trails, etc. It had been so long since our last visit to the "children's forest" that Abbey had forgotten about it. (I would like to forget it- it was hot and there was a lot of crying involved.) Today she had a blast! Chad wore himself out running around with her and Elliott and I enjoyed strolling around in the wonderful fall weather.

Girls on the go at the Children's Forest entrance.

These are the only hedgehogs and squirrels we saw.

In addition to a large typical playground area, there are a bunch of multi-colored nets called the "rainbow hammocks" designed for climbing and bouncing. There is definitely no napping going on in these hammocks. Abbey wasn't crazy about this and was glad to move on to the big slides on the hillside. The weirdest- and possibly most fun- thing there is the bouncing mountains. I don't know what they are really called. They are huge white hills where you will see people of all ages jumping, sliding, bouncing and acting silly. I will let you draw your own conclusions about what they look like!

Catching her breath on the rainbow hammocks.

Wheeeeeeeee!

Taking time out from bouncing to give us a beautiful smile.

Many people come out just to enjoy nature, especially those who live in the urban jungle that is Tokyo. These pink and purple and white flowers (cosmos maybe?) were everywhere and people were posing for pictures in them. It reminded me of people pulling over on the side of I-30 in Fort Worth to take pictures with the bluebonnets.

The flowers were beautiful, but Chad is just thinking about getting the 30 pound person off his back.

All in all a great way to spend our Saturday morning. We were all worn out. Chad had to get some coffee just to wake up enough to drive home!