One of the things I love about Tokyo is the never ending places to explore. Yesterday we took a day trip up into the mountains to a resort area called Sagami Lake in Kanagawa, on the boarder of Tokyo. It's one in a series of man-made lakes when the Sagami river was damned up.
About 1 hour outside of downtown Tokyo by car, it's a relatively close place to go sight seeing. The lake is decent sized, around 1 miles long with several areas to access it. We went to the large park on the north east side called Sagami Park. Some of the activities you can do at the park are, boat tours, paddle & oar boats, cafe's, vintage arcades, hiking, & fishing.
Or you can just relax and enjoy the beautiful lake.
The main walkway is lined with vintage arcades and eateries.
As soon as I saw the vintage games I became a kid again.
I explained to my kids with glee that these were some of the games their mom and I grew up with, pinball, pachinko, slots, etc. Ok, the last two we were adults, but still nostalgic.
How many of you spent time on one of these at the pizzeria!?
Then there was the shooting arcade! My kids loved this. The guns shoot cork plugs and you have to knock the statues off the shelf to get points for the gifts.
There are about 5 gaming arcades in total. Each one with different games & prizes to win. The typical arcade game costs $1. The shooting gallery games cost $5 and you'll be lucky if you win the cheapest prize for that, but the kids will love it, even the ones with gray hairs...
Just past the arcade we saw these awesome cotton candy machines.
You grab a chopstick, put $1 in, open the door and as the sugar melts and spins into stringy cotton candy you wrap it around your chopstick. This was so cool and the smell of the melting sugar was delicious. The cotton candy itself was kinda bland. It was anti-climactic, but the process was fun!
When the lake was damned up in the 1940's many fishermen in the area lost their livelihoods. In exchange for that the government gave the families rental boats for the lake and closed it to any private boating. So all the boats are or were owned by the locals.
Just across the boardwalk from the cotton candy machine we spotted something interesting.
A cafe out on the lake. It looked like a great spot to take a break from the games and walking so we walked over to it.
We were in for a surprise, it was a Showa era(30's-80's) cafe.
Show era was the golden era for Japan. The time of Ramune(a type of soda), spam, snacks and movie stars.
There was even a small counter you could sit at to enjoy a craft beer or a coffee and have a chat with the owner. We asked the owner about the lake and he informed us the evening was the best time to be there because of all of the various lighted areas on and around the lake. We made him a promise to come back again sometime for an evening.
This time though we were just going to have a coffee, relax on the small loveseat, and watch the paddle boats go by.
After about 10minutes it began to sprinkle so we decided to call it a day. On the way back to the car we stopped to get some ice cream though.
Luck was with me again today as the ice cream shop had black sesame ice cream! If you've never had black sesame ice cream you have to try it. It has a roasted flavor that is balanced out by the sweet ice cream. It's really damn good and I am surprised I never see it in the U.S.
The park also has a grassy area where you can pitch a day tent, have a picnic and let the kids play on the damn turbine displays.
We headed out to Costco after spending a few hours at the lake. We didn't take any of the boats because we got caught up in the other activities and it was lunch time which meant pizza at Costco! I'll write about that another day.
The park is only one area of the lake. There are hotels, fishing spots and other activities including a muscle park full of rope and zip line fun and a famous illumination area, but that's for visiting at night.
Just below Sagami lake there are a few more lakes and recreation areas. The whole area is great for outdoor fun. It's just another great way to enjoy greater Tokyo.
