Today, we went to Niji no Sato. Its a sort of theme park, with an English town and a Canadian town and a small railway connecting the two together and a couple of beautiful valleys with unkempt flowers dotted about. First of all, the important point, money. Its 300 yen to park in the car park, 1200 yen to go into the park itself and 400 yen for a train ride, one way. We went by train and took the bus from Shuzenji station, with a combined return bus ticket and entrance fee of 1690 yen. I think that's the best value. You can take the Odoriko train direct from Tokyo to Shuzenji, or go for the quicker option of the bullet train, changing at Mishima Station. The whole park has that, as the Japanese would say, bubble feel to it. That time in Japanese history in the late 70s and early 80s when the economy was doing great, but since then has gradually declined. Its similar to the Victorian age in England. We wandered around the UK town waiting for the train which travels at about walking speed along a track about 500 meters long to Canada town and got off there. After a brief look around, we made our way down the valley to see the irises and the hydrangeas. Here are some pictures of the two "towns" and the railway.
The irises were nearly finished, still quite nice though, but the hydrangeas were perfect. Its probably the last time to see them this year, as its getting late in the rainy season now. The park is a bit old and somewhat left to its own devices as far as the flowers are concerned. Today there were not that many people around and it was a very nice quiet and soothing place to wander around.
Here are a few more pictures of the flowers and their surroundings.
After the park, we went to a nearby soba restaurant, about two minutes walk from the entrance of the park. The food was very nice and huge! I'm writing this now at 9pm and I ate at 2pm and I'm still not hungry.
It was a very nice day out and pretty easy to get to for anyone thinking of taking a day trip from Tokyo. I really recommend Izu for people thinking of coming to Japan for a holiday. Not just for the parks and the seasonal flowers etc. which are lovely, but Izu has so much more. Beaches, sea, walks, hot springs, views, theme parks, mountains and so on.