"Children grow up so fast" is something people often say. I can confirm now as my oldest daughter is now 19 and my youngest 9. Since I do so much traveling I try to make sure I spend as much time with my children as I can. It's much harder with the older ones than my youngest though. My younger daughter is always happy just to go for a walk in our local park with me. That park's name is Naganuma Park, named after the town we live in. It's actually a large, forested hill that has nice hiking trails and views throughout it.
My daughter and I went out for a New Year's hike on the 2nd just to get out of the house. It turned out to be quite a hike as we explored the far end, which we had never been to. There we discovered a bamboo forest, Spirited Away(Sen To Chihiro) and more! Here's how it went.
We started out at the most westerly point as it's nearest to our house. The park is surrounded by houses, but once you are inside it you would never know. One home at the entrance to the park has a nice bonsai tree garden. Many of those trees look very old judging by their trunks.
Strange growths lined the property walls.
Just past this home you enter the forest.
it must be nice to live right up against nature with peace and quiet. Then again, the birds here are quite lively.
The trail quickly splits into 3 routes up the hill. The two paths left & center are fairly steep and go straight up the hill, while the third path winds around and up the hill with flights of wooden stairs. We chose the center path, while initially steep, levels out soon enough and you get nice views.
We passed by several trees lined with some type of mushroom.
I've seen similar fungi over at Inokashira Park in Kichijoji too.
As we continued on the trail we came across another fungi. This one really stood out with it's bright red color.
Looking at a cross section of the felled tree it appeared the fungus was
all over inside.
My daughter wanted to touch it but I told her not too as sometimes bright colors are a warning sign of danger.
Just beyond the tree we reached the top of the hill and the border of the park.
A small road traverses the top of the hill and hosts a 100 year old restaurant called Tori Yama.
One cool note about this restaurant, it was by Hayao Miyazaki in Sen To Chihiro, Spirited Away. The sign in the picture below is the sign for Toriyama.
(Source - https://www.tori-yama.com/secret)
Apparently Miyazaki and staff have come to this restaurant several times. I can't believe my wife and I haven't been yet!
Just past the restaurant there is an actual park. This is usually how far we go when we turn around.
This time however I noticed something on the park map. Two observation platforms further into the park.
After promising my daughter ice cream she agreed to press on. Yes, even in winter she eats ice cream.
The first observatory was fairly close and offered beautiful views of the sprawling city below.
Southern Sky Tower, a 40 story residential tower stands out in Hachioji.
My daughter at this point asked if she could try to take some pictures too.
It was a great moment for me to foster her curiosity. She loved the 50x zoom that enabled her to see people playing down by the river. However the pictures didn't turn out so good.
We continued on exploring the forest excited to find out what lied ahead.
After about 5 minutes we had reached the easterly edge of the park.
We headed north to look for the second observatory space.
As we wandered the trail started heading down the hill.
This wouldn't bode well for any observatory ahead.
We came to a fork in the road. Having not found the second observatory we decided to head left, towards exiting the park and to 7-11 for ice cream.
More cool mushrooms greeted us.
As we turned the corner something really cool appeared.
A bamboo forest!
A few picnic tables sat along the trail waiting for spring & summer visitors.
A few more steps down to suburbia.
At the exit of the park there was a small stream & trail that would take you along the other side of the bamboo forest.
I wanted to go on exploring, but my daughter had seen enough and I had a promise to keep at 7-11. That was fine though because now I had a reason to come back here and do more hiking & exploring.
One last look back at the park concluded a wonderful few hours with my daughter.
My wife sometimes complains, but I am so grateful we live where we do. We have a good sized city minutes away, a river minutes away, mountains minutes away and this wonderful park minutes away. If we were further in the city it would be much harder to have it all. I hope these hikes will plant a seed in my daughter of memories and interest in getting out into nature when she gets older.
I hope you have a nice Wednesday Walk and Make Me Smile wherever you are too.
Thanks for reading!
