Summer: A rest under a tree

Many times, I cannot understand how some people would risk tanning themselves till they look like a walking meat jerky. As for me, I can't wait to run/walk as fast as I could into a building or walk illegally on the opposite side of the road just because it has some shelter. I will even try desperately to hide my big body in the shadow of a slim traffic pole. 

In the recent years, my body is giving me more reasons to protect myself from the sun - I developed a heat-induced migraine whenever I am exposed in the sun for more than 15mins. Yes, it only takes 15mins and I will be having the worst time of my life. Additionally, I have a family with a history of skin cancer. Because of that, nowadays, I dress 'appropriately' (read: ridiculously) whenever I need to go out in the sun.

So, how I dress in summer? First, slathering generously on sunscreen. After that, put on a long sleeve top. And then, a long pants. Make sure that no skin gets too much exposure to the dangerous rays! Then, put on my wide-brimmed hat. So wide that my vision is slightly blocked away. Completed the look with a big, dark sunglasses (in addition to my heat-induced migraine, the strong sunlight also hurts my eyes, sigh... I am a health-mess). The end result is I think I looked more ridiculous than MJ in disguise. So, after putting on my summer 'armour', I am happy to go out as usual. 

So, again, summer is not my favourite season and I usually escape the heat in a park. Today, my escape is again my familiar park, the Showa Kinen Koen. Since the summer heat is still hanging on tight to this already oppressive climate, this is the perfect place to escape for me with plenty of shade and occasionally, a nice breeze to cool off. 

The not-keen-on-summer-heat me, took my well-used backpack, stuffed it with some snacks - a store-bought onigiri, CC lemon drink and a cup of ice and off I go. I didn't have to go far into the park for some cool shade as I found some crepe myrtle trees. They are shady and the flowers are beautiful.

I think it could be a strange place to sit down as a couple of onlookers looked at me with quizzing eyes. I hope they are looking at my strange dress-up and not because I broke a park rule by dumping my huge ass under the unusually quiet spot. But, I choose to ignore them and just relax on the soft green grass, plug in my earphones, choose my Latino playlist and lay down, staring on the beautiful blooms. I never felt so at peace for a long time. No more work demands. No more deadlines. Just me, my music and crepe myrtle.

Under these trees, I rest

Resting under the crepe myrtle is an amazing way to relax

One beautiful lonely tree

The crepe myrtle can be seen from mid-Aug and they usually last for one month. I grew to love these flowers after seeing them on my trip to Kamakura last summer. Although the Showa Kinen Koen doesn't advertise their presence, but you can easily find them on the lawn after the gingko lane. They are located in front the big fountain. 

This is front view of me

You can find the direction for the Showa Kinen Koen in my previous posts on their seasonal flowers such as the tulips in spring, sunflowers in summer and autumn leaves and cosmos in autumn.

Have a great summer and I hope you found your beautiful resting spot in Tokyo too!

Golden leaves on sunny autumn day at the Showa Kinen Koen

My favourite season, autumn, is here!!! After 7 years in Japan, I have learnt how to appreciate the changing of the season better. And Japan has made the learning easy for me with all the announcement of seasonal food in the restaurants and eateries. Now, I absolutely look forward to the changing of the leaves and feel the slowly cooling in the temperature. 

Another thing I love about this season is the sun! I love basking in the autumn sun and feel the warmth on your skin. After a cold night on 11th Nov, we had a short sunny day which I took it as an opportunity for photography and a walk in the park. I went to the Showa Kinen Park to see the gingko lane and the Japanese garden.

My first time seeing the golden leaves of the gingko trees left me a vivid memory till today. A carpet of yellow leaves on the ground... And I am given another chance to recapture the moments again this time.

The Japanese garden in Showa Kinen Park is especially busy with photographers, amateur and professional alike, during this time.

I think that this is the most beautiful time in the Japanese garden too. The display of green, yellow and red leaves makes quite a spectacular sight.

I love this picture of fallen leaves on the water.

As you explore this park, you will see many people just come over to enjoy the scenery or just being alone. 

I love to come here and sit for a minute or two to enjoy the peacefulness. I guess I am introvert and happy to be one. 

To get to the Showa Kinen Park:
From Shinjuku, take JR Chuo Line (40 minutes) or the Ohme Limited Express (30 minutes).

On JR Chuo Line, get off at Tachikawa Station and walk 10 minutes to Akebono Gate (450yen).
On JR Ohme Line, get off at Nishi Tachikawa Station and walk 2 minutes to Nishitachikawa Gate (450yen).

Where is your favourite park in Tokyo in autumn?

Flowers in Autumn at the Showa Kinen Koen

The weather began to cool down, more cloudy days and the days are getting shorter announced the arrival of autumn. But nonetheless, this is best time to take a step back and enjoy the changes if the season. I had the opportunity to see the cosmos field in Showa Kinen Koen. It was the most beautiful flower field in the autumn for me.

Just loved to see small creatures like bees and caterpillars nestling in the flower as they looked so contented.

Cute fellow

Another cute nestling in its flowerbed

Buzzing Busy Bee

Where are you going, cute one? Don't you like this flower?

For directions to get to the Showa Kinen Koen, you can see it here and here. 

Enjoy your day at the cosmos field then!

Hottest summer in Japan and the smiling flower

Before Japan, I live and work in Europe for an extended time. And some of my best memories of Europe happened to be in the summertime. While it was hot, but, it always has been with a nice sunshine.

So, with that kind of happy and sunny memories, I thought that the summer in Japan would be exactly the kind of weather I had experienced in Europe. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that the summer in Japan is definitely sunny but not necessarily happy.

Usually the temperature in the summer in Tokyo averages around 30°C-ish. Although, the temperature is almost like in Malaysia or Singapore, but when the heat is combined with high humidity, it can turn into a very unpleasant climate. At night, the temperature doesn't go down too. The heat continues to blanket the city, making you sweat in your sleep at night and uncomfortable. You will wake up tired. The Japanese has a term for this condition, necyusho (熱中症) or heat exhaustion.

I know that my electricity bills usually rockets up at this time of the year. Yes, I don't care. The air-conditioner is my new best friend. Together with shadow-shade of tall objects (building, traffic light pole, tall people, etc...) whenever I am out. In fact, any air-conditioner and any shady area are my two best friends in summer.

So, it is no-brainer that I want to tell you that it is a terrible idea to travel to Tokyo in the summertime. Unless you are planning to be indoors most of the time, stepping outside of any building to go for sight-seeing in Tokyo means you risk melting yourself until you get re-animated again by the cool breeze of an air-conditioner. You can sometimes see Japanese people walking around with towels around their necks, ready to mop up their sweat. 

This year, with the mercury actually hitting 38°C, making it one of Tokyo's highest temperature records, it has definitely become a very miserable summer for me. However, determined not to be beaten by the heat, I randomly tell a friend about having a picnic in a sunflower field. She is keen on the idea and we decided that going to the nearby park to have a picnic and to enjoy some sunflowers. After filling up a small backpack with food and drinks, we set off, risking ourselves in this fever-induced heat and headed towards the Showa Kinen Koen.

Although, we missed the peak flowering season for the sunflowers, we are still treated with a few beauties. 

If there is a competition to vote for the happiest summer flower, my guess would be the winner would be the sunflower. To me, the more blazing the sun is, the happier they look. Or maybe it is their yellow colour that convinces me so. Or maybe it is how they always seem to glow under the bright light of the sun. Well, they sure cheer me up on this miserable hot day! 

Smiling under the sun

The best time to see the sunflowers is at the height of summer, anywhere from the end of July till end of August. You can find the direction for the Showa Kinen Koen in my previous posts:

Spring is in the air.... in Showa Kinen Koen

Enjoy the sunny beauties and enjoy a lot of water! 

Spring is in the air.... in Showa Kinen Koen

Wow! I can't believe that now is spring. This spring makes it my 2nd year in Japan.

Flowers are blooming everywhere and I woke up to the sound of birds singing outside my window this morning. The sun is bright and everything is sunny. I felt that this is one of the most beautiful mornings I had in a long time. It has been so quiet during winter with everything so bare and gray before, but life seemed to have returned from its sleep. I have flowers blooming outside my apartment and they bloom so brilliantly as though they have always been forever like that.

To me, I felt that the spring is the best wake-up call for me to start to get active and do all the fun stuffs, especially after this year's cold, bare winter that seem to make me slow down on my work and studies.

And when spring arrives, it actually felt like the beginning of a new year. Everything starts moving. Everybody is getting busy as school starts and new employees start their first day at work in April. Some of us moved out and into a new place to live.

Even the nature is getting busy. The plants are budding out new leaves. Flowers are blooming. I guess spring is a wake-up call for every living thing on this planet.

I will be getting busy as well with hanami parties lining up, new semester at the university and of course, preparing more posts for this blog.

Today, I just want to introduce to you a place that is a favourite with Tokyoites whenever we need a big, open space to relax. I am sure that many who lives in Tokyo know about this place, the Showa Commemorative National Government Park (国営昭和記念公園 Kokuei Shōwa Kinen Kōen).

It is my favourite escape door to nature whenever I feel overwhelmed with life in Tokyo. It is relatively easy to get to from Shinjuku station and it takes about 30mins to get there by train.

The Showa Kinen Koen is a lovely park to go to at any time. And like Tokyo, it has never failed in surprising me with its beautiful flowers and peaceful walkways (although it is always full of people).

Before I start going on and on about how I love Showa Kinen Koen, first, enjoy some spring photos taken from the park.

It is seriously a beautiful day and I am happy to spend it with the yellow daffodils

Although you can't see the crowd from the pictures, but it is a busy park and lots of people come here (especially in spring and autumn) to take photos of the park, to relax, to play frisbee... But it still manages to feel spacious and peaceful despite everything.

I wished I lived nearby enough to bring and read my book in this park

This is a huge park and you will need at least half a day just to enjoy a small section of this park. I would recommend spending a whole day here because there is so much to see and much more to do. You can hire a small boat to row in the big lake, you rent a bicycle and ride around the park, have BBQ or picnic, kids can enjoy splashing around in the Rainbow Pool and much, much more to do.

Lovely park to relax

The famous gingko lane

It is a 400 Yen (update: it is 410yen as of 06.07.2014) for anyone above 15 years old and half price for senior citizen above 65 years old to enter the Showa Kinen Park, but I can assure you that you will feel the price is worth it once you enter this park.

The nearest station to the park is Nishi-Tachikawa Station (JR 西川 駅 or JR Nishi-Tachikawa eki) on the JR Ome line (青梅線) or you can stop at the JR Tachikawa Station  (JR 立川 or JR Tachikawa eki) and walk 15-20 mins walk from there.

The website of Showa Kinen Koen also provides additional information on how to get there in English from various major stations, but I will put it up in this blog for you.

Photo credit: Showa Kinen Park

Photo credit: Showa Kinen Park

And the direction to get there if you arrive at the JR Tachikawa station (JR 立川) instead.

The Showa Kinen Koen is one of the easiest parks to go to whenever you are in the city and wanted to go somewhere naturally beautiful or whenever you just simply wanted to feel the grass under your feet. 

So, have you been to the Showa Kinen Koen yet? If yes, what do you think of the park? 

If no, do you think you will make a trip to the park after this post? 

Share with me your experience at the park! So, till the next time ( ^_^)／