FALLING IN LOVE - WITH A JAPANESE MARKET

This was the shop that I found while walking to Showa Kinen Koen in Tokyo. Being the curious me, I went inside and asked permission from the young and sweet girl at the counter to take photos and my wish was granted. The ILOCA Farmer's Market sold fresh vegetables. I would not hesitate to cook my daily meal, or eat a lot of vegetables, if I were to become a resident of the city by looking at the agricultural products.  The shop was unbelievably clean to be one that sold vegetables and everything was arranged in an attractive manner.

My happiness was short-lived when an elderly man appear and signalled to me that I was not allowed to take photos. Well, too late, old man but I was there with a good intention. The shop gets a free promotion in my blog.

Too bad I couldn't find any information when I tried to google for ILOCA as all the websites are in Japanese so you  could try and search for more information on your own. :)

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A WALK AROUND SHOWA KINEN PARK - PART TWO

[THE CONTINUATION FROM PART ONE]

[DAY 2] 3rd June 2014: It was getting late, I was getting hungry and was actually trying to find my way out of the park. I even had to ask a few people how to get back to the first gate where I entered the park from. Suddenly, from far away, I saw a scene that was beyond belief - bright red flowers in the horizon. As I walked nearer to the spot, right in front of my eyes was the most beautiful scene that I almost cried tears of joy.

I hate taking selfie as it always makes me look uglier but I think I took the best selfies here.

There were very few locals who walked past this area but I did not hesitate to stop them and help me take more photos despite the language barrier. They all seemed happy to do that for me and I didn't forget to say "Arigato gozaimas" and bowed a bit.

Too bad, the park was about to be closed to the public and I still had to find my way out, if not I would have spent longer hours here. Anyhow, that was one memorable discovery of the park. It reminded me of the trip I had when I was in Lake Tekapo in New Zealand. If I were to come back here, I would go during spring or autumn. Have a look at the amazing scenery of the park at this website that I found. 

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A WALK AROUND SHOWA KINEN KOEN - PART ONE

[DAY 2] 3rd June 2014 ~ After the fauna, it was time to see the flora of Tokyo. I took a train and headed to Shona Kinen Koen which was a few stops away from Tama Zoo. Then I walked quite a distance and finally managed to arrive at the gate of the park after asking for directions to people I met on the street.

The park was really huge and I had to stick to the map given as a precaution not to get lost. I also had to remember the entrance gate so that I could go back here once I was done exploring. There were many other entry points at the park. The entry fee was Ұ410, about RM13.

The park actually consisted of many sections. It was no ordinary park - you would be surprised to see what people could do here. One of them was the water activity on lake where people could do boating or boating.

Then there was this water theme park, which I think was primarily for children. Another section of this water theme park was closed when I was there and I saw people were cleaning the pool. 

There was this one section where people could use the sports field and court to play games like football and basketball. How cool is that? One way to develop sports in the country is by providing sports facilities to people.

There was a huge children's playground in the park and it was actually hidden among the big trees. As you can see, I had the park all to myself - it was a working day and it was actually late, about 4:00 p.m.

I was not really sure what this was but there some kind of steam coming out from the pipe. I took a picture and walked off as quickly as possible.

There was this rubbery structure, something like a trampoline, where people could endlessly jump up and down. There were not many flowers that I could find BUT wait for the next post in part two.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2

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