Day 15: Tachikawa

I was going to start today's blog entry with

Today, I jumped on an express train out of Tokyo, rode an hour, and ended up in Tachikawa... Tokyo.

but then I looked at my blog from last year when I went to Tachikawa and it started with

Today, I booked it out of Tokyo an hour by train - to end up in a different part of Tokyo, Tachikawa

Does nothing new exist in this world? I guess it makes sense since I was the one that made both posts but still. I'm not going to read the other blog post again right now, so sorry if I give any information over again. I won't be talking too much about flowers or the park's history this time though, so that should help!

I had meant to go back to Tachikawa to visit Showa Memorial Park for its autumn flower festival. That actually ended last week and I had forgotten to check my calendar for the specific time frame I was supposed to go. Oh well. I figured if anything, it meant that the park would be less busy and quieter, which would be nice.

Luckily for me, once I arrived it was actually less busy! The park was open just for me! Not really, but it was nice being able to get a ticket or go to any of the snack stands without a line to wait in.

One thing I didn't realize when I was there last time was that the park is directly next to a Japan Self Defense Force (JSDF) base/camp/training facility thing. Clearly, I'm not really sure what it is. "But how is that relevant to the story?" you may be asking. Well when I was arriving, I had seen a helicopter flying in pretty low and it was being loud and then I thought it landed in the distance and I could hear it for a while. I had assumed at first that it was something like a medical helicopter getting a patient. But then the helicopter sounds persisted. For hours.

I don't remember that happening last time. Maybe the JSDF had a spring recess at that time? Or they take Sunday off? Unsure. Either way, the park was louder than I had expected, unfortunately. Not enough to ruin the experience though!

At least the JSDF planted trees to spell the city name beneath their runway

Since it wasn't busy I decided to take a pedal boat out on the little lake. I was nervous to rent one at first because I didn't want to look silly or something (IDK why I was nervous) but after spending the ¥800, I think it ended up being worth it. I was the only one on the lake for the first few minutes of my rental period, which was thirty minutes.

Your view if you were me. AKA my view

I got to see some wildlife up-close and personal. Look at these dudes kicking their feet

There was also a fish that swam alongside my boat for a while. I guess guests have been feeding the fish even though they aren't supposed to... I didn't feed it anything and after a while it ditched me and swam to another boat that had entered.

After boating, I walked around the park and visited the Japanese and bonsai gardens. The bonsai were cool as always, and the main Japanese garden had some sort of event it was setting up for.

I eneded up spending almost 3.5 hours just walking around, boating, eating some snacks, etc. I didn't actually get to see much flowering since I came a week late, so that'll have to wait til some other time. I also lost the mask I was wearing, I think when I took it off to eat at some point and just forgot to put it back on. Sorry to the park staff for littering unintentionally! I wasted like 1000 steps looking for it but wanted to leave the park of my own volition instead of getting kicked out at closing time.

After leaving the park, I visited a few shops in the area since I probably won't be back again this trip. I spend like 2 hours just browsing and almost ended up walking another mile to go visit a special vending machine but stumbled upon the collaboration vending machine somewhere else on accident. Thankfully I didn't have to walk any more!

Unfortunately it was out of the collaboration drinks

I ended up missing rush hour thankfully and got home with just under 23k steps today! My legs are going to be sore tomorrow!