Kasai Rinkai Park

Kasai Rinkai Park

[ Apr.2017 ] We went back to see our family for the Easter holiday this year.

The first place our family took us was Kasai Rinkai Park in Edogawa, Tokyo.

It was opened in June, 1989 and the area of the park is as much as 810,000 square metres, which means that this is the third largest Tokyo metropolitan park.

It was at a weekend and apart from us whose average age is quite high, 90% of the visitors were families with children.

I was surprised to see how they have a picnic lunch.

Nowadays people use tents to secure their privacy.

Or is it to prevent the sunburn?

We did not have any picnic and headed for the big wheel straight away.

This big wheel is called “Diamond & Flower” and that is because of the lighting after sunset.

It is 111 metres in diameter and the highest point is 117 metres, and that means this is one of the largest big wheels in Japan.

My mother said “We had a ride on one of these over there, too, didn’t we”.

What she meant was the big wheel we took in Gdansk in Poland.

That one was much smaller, but let us stay for three rounds.

This one allowed us only one round and it took about 17 minutes.

They say that if you are lucky you can see Mt. Fuji from the top, but unfortunately we could not see it.

The view was nice but it was not so surprising, though it was good to see the sea.

After the ride, we came across a small market in the park, so we had a look at it.

It was a strange combination, but we enjoyed Sake made in Tokyo and doll cake (sponge cakes in various shapes filled with red bean paste) there.

I hadn’t had doll cakes for ages.

And then, we went to the aquarium which was our final destination.

I might have said it before, but my family loves an aquarium.

Here the entrance was just a glass dome and the actual aquarium was in the basement.

It was very well organised and we could see the various fish from each area in the world.

Only problem was that there were so many people that we could not enjoy it thoroughly.

That is the common problem in Tokyo.

My husband looked happy, saying “Every time we visit an aquarium, we find some fish I have never seen”.

The pattern and colours of fish are amazing, aren’t they.

On the other hand, there were Chilean penguins whose faces were not so pretty, too.

The time flew and it was nearly the closing time of 5 pm.

Because it is run by the Tokyo metropolitan government, it is not open late.

When we came out of the aquarium, we saw a lovely sunset.