Awesome day at a massive park

Yesterday we went to a really cool park. It is our third or fourth visit. It is about 45km north of here. It took us a bit over an hour to get there using the express-way and nearly two hours to get home (bad traffic at the end of a long weekend).

We've thought and thought, but cannot come up with an equivalent park in Australia. Australia has large parks but none that we know of have so many facilities.

We're thinking we'd like to go back in six weeks or so and see the autumn colours. For the whole family it cost (sans petrol and food, which we took ourselves) 5 500 yen, about $AU67. Not too bad for a day of family fun in Japan.

It is about 4 km x 1 km in size and has magnificent facilities. Of particular interest to young families is the obstacle course (with 23 separate obstacles), a large play equipment area and a 1000 square metre hilly trampoline. I took heaps of photos to show you because words don't easily do justice to this park.

This is one of the obstacles. Our 5 and 8 year olds loved them. Our 11 year old is nearly too old, though his main problem was that he couldn't rush through at 100 mph because there were literally thousands of people there. We chose not only a gorgeous day, but a public holiday too!

This is the best. I'm in the green shirt. It is hard to stay off these hills. They are bouncy, though with so many people on them they were less bouncy than we've experienced on a lower attendance day.

Probably by design, the trampoline hills are a long walk from any car park. The alternative transport is, you guessed it, bikes (that you hire if you don't bring your own). Also you can go on a bus (that you pay for).

The park has an impressive bike way system. Pretty much like roads. With all the signage and road markings.

Love the sign! The "Slow Down" signs had snails on them.

Here's a map. You'll probably need to click on it to see it larger. We parked at the West Gate and the trampoline hills are a bit south of the central gate. We've never been to the north or south of the park. We're always too exhausted just doing these two localities. There are castle ruins at down in the south, so we might venture down there next time.

In summer there is a large water play area too. A few years ago we came on one of the hottest days in summer and nearly died because of the heat. The hills were almost too hot to stand on, the water in the water-play area was very warm (it is shallow). We were very grateful for the many drink vending machines all over the park.

This has to be one of our family's favourite outings in Tokyo. There is also a very satisfying feeling that "we've gotten out of the city" that is always helpful for country kids like us.