Showa Kinen Park

A friend from Leafcup told me about this place in Nishi-Tachikawa, but I spoke to a few people and they had never heard of it before! I planned to go there for a portraiture shoot I was doing with one of my friends, Ayumi. I wanted to get there before she did because I the more I read about Showa Kinen Park the more beautiful flowers photos I found. So I got there a couple of hours before to go and have a look around.

As it turned out I literally only saw about a 5th of the place because it was sooooo big! I definitely want to go back... maybe in Autumn when all the leaves are beautiful reds and yellows. I walked from the main entrance up to the Flower Tree Garden and just up one side of the Open field and that was it.

It started out as a really beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and by 6pm it was raining hard, so luckily the rain basically held off until the park closed! I got some pretty cool photos of different plants and wildlife that they had in the park. Hope you like them.

These spiders were everywhere, luckily no spider webs above the path thank goodness but the trees were covered in them. They ranged in size from about 2cm - about 3 inches, This one was a bigun! I can't believe I got this close to him... anything for a photo hey!

Now, in Japan, drangonflies are pretty much everywhere... even a couple in the city. But if you are in a park you can look up and see at least 5 above you. They are great, and learn to have you around very quickly. At first they will always fly away, but if you stay there they will keep coming back, getting closer and closer each time! I waited for about 5 mins in the same position for this photo above but so worth it, I'm so impressed with the amount of detail I have managed to capture, The drangonfly below was making me laugh, the marking he has on his face looks like someone has drawn an uphappy face and well... watch the video...

This flying insect really scared me at first, it was quite big and at first sight looked a cross between a giant wasp and a moth. But I watched it for a few minite and it was quite harmless, constantly hovering, I didn't see it settle once! Quite amazing!

I did about 15mins of taking photos with Ayumi and it started raining, so we have rescheduled to in a couple of weeks time.

That night, I went into leafcup to take Rieko out for a birthday drink, we had a lovely girlie chat! It was great and she is a really great friend :-) which is always handy in a place far away from home where your family and friends are :-)