Ancient capital Nara

Nara city is a beautiful and quaint city in the Kansai area,  outstanding by his effort to balance nature with the rapid development of modern Japan. The city simbol are the wild deer that roams freely in the city.

Eight places in the city: Todai-ji, Kofuku-ji, Kasuga shrine, Ganjou ji, Yakushi-ji, Toshodai-ji, Nara palace site, Kasugayama primaveral forest,  has been collectively designated as UNESCO World heritage site.

Toudai-ji, Koufuku-ji and Kasugayama primaveral forest are link togueter by Nara Park. The Park is renowed by the deers roaming through the premises and the surrounding areas. The deers have been designed a natural monument by the Japanese government.

Todai ji houses the world's largest bronze Budha and the  daibutsuden hall itself is the largets wooden building in the world.

The city is one hour from Osaka and Kioto so a day trip visits are popular, however, a longer stays is recommended to appreciate fully the city sites..

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Universal Studios Japan

Universal Studios Japan is a theme park in Osaka, inspired by the Universal Studios Movies. The park opened in March 2001, and is currently ranked number 9th among the top 25 amusement/theme parks of the world.

There is a small mall marking the way to the entrance, after this you need to manage the crowds to get in. The park, as most of the attractions in Japan, gets a large number of visitors,  but due to its large size, it does not feel crowed. The queues for the popular attractions are certainly not for the impatient, but you can always use the “single rider” option, that will give you a faster access to the rides, if you don’t mind riding by yourself.

The park areas are themed on movies locations, the major ones being: New York, San Francisco, Hollywood, Jurassic Park, and Amity.

All the buildings and the interiors are reproductions of movies locations, be sure to check the small plates on the buildings before going in, to help you locate the movie.

If you bring small children, there is also a kids section with enough variety to spend a complete afternoon on it.

The park is definitively one of the best in Japan and it’s worth making a trip just to visit it.

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Jonanjima Seaside Park

Jonanjima in Ota, Tokyo, is a marine park located in the Tokyo bay, in operation since 1991, managed by the Tokyo port authority.



The park location overlooking Haneda airport offers an unmatched view of the airplanes landing or taking off from the airport. Airplane lovers are treated by the large aircrafts flying at very low altitude while approaching for landing. The park gets very noisy at airport peak times, early in the morning, and late in the afternoon.



The artificial beach in the park is a great place for walking, as like most of the beaches in Tokyo bay fishing and swimming is prohibited.


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Iris at Shikinosato park

The shikinosato park is one of the largest parks in moriya city, Ibaraki prefecture. Moriya city developed a large industrial park at the beginning of the 90s, designating some areas as green zones as part of the project, the shikinosato with 20,660m² is one of the largest parks created on the designated green zone.




The park was built to use the terrain original features as much as possible. Centered around a pond, over 50,000 plants of 200 species flower each season, hence the name of the park “village of the four seasons”.



At the time of my visit, the iris were blooming beautifully around the pond.




A watermill, a stream and a boat in the area next to the playground; A great place to sit and relax.

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Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu Chiba, is one of the most popular attractions for kids in the summer (oddly around Christmas is full of young couples). Trying to avoid the incredible long queues, I visited the park one week before the official start of the school summer holiday.



Tokyo Disneyland is a licensed park from Walt Disney Company, and with next-door Tokyo Disney Sea, are the only Disney parks not owned by Walt Disney.

The park is modeled after California Disneyland, and it has become one of Japan tourist attraction for visitor from neighborhood countries.



The park closed briefly after the earthquake, due to some minor damage, but it has now re-opened with most of the attractions operating normally. The park is operating with energy saving measures, but these measures are barely noticeable.

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Asukayama one of the first parks in Japan

Asukayama Park in Kita ku, Tokyo is one of the first official parks in Japan.
In 1720 cherry trees were planted on the area by mandate of Tokugawa Yoshimune, later in 1737 the area was open to the general public as a place for cherry blossom viewing. In 1873 the government established parks, as areas where historically people gather to enjoy scenic views, and site of historical significance, asking prefectures to select the sites and apply for registration. Asakuyama, along with Ueno, Shiba, Asakusa and Fukagawa where the first areas to be registered.




The park is a famous spots for kids, to beat the summer heat in the many fountains, and small waterfalls in the park, although currently all the fountains are shut off as an electric energy saving measure.





A small oblique monorail has been set up for the elderly, disabled or just in case you do not want to climb the smallest hill in Tokyo (25.7m).



There are two trains in exhibit at the park: A toden 6080, a streetcar manufactured in 1949 and used until 1978 in the arakawa line, and a JNR D51, a steam train manufactured in 194, and used until 1972.




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Kasai Seaside Park

The good weather is back in Tokyo and there is no better way to spend a holiday that to visit a park. The Kasai Seaside Park in Edogawa is a popular destination that normally attracts large crowds, but as of the largest parks in Japan, with 81 million square meters, the crowds are tolerable (with the exception perhaps of the cherry blossom viewing season).



The park is divided into several zones, the central zone with the “Promenade to the Sea” main street running from the Kasai seaside station to the “Cristal view” observatory. The Northwest part is the grass area with the 117m tall “Diamond and Flower” Ferris Wheel, currently the largest in Japan, the wheel has one most beautiful light shows, that is not currently in display due to electricity power saving measures. The seaside-edogawa river hotel is also in this area.





To the east of the park the Aquarium Tokyo sea Life park, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi is one of the most popular Aquariums holding the record of most visitor in Japan.


Next to the aquarium is a bird sanctuary with fresh water and seawater ponds and birds watching observatories.




The Cristal view observatory offers a view of the sea breeze square, and the two artificial beaches, the waterbus station is at the east side of the square.


The park is perhaps too big to be enjoyed on one visit, but it is definitively worth several visits.


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