I know it has been a hot minute since I’ve blogged, but in my defense, laziness is a valid excuse. Okay, so maybe it’s not valid per se, but it’s the truth. I don’t want to waste my time or yours coming up with some elaborate lie as to why I haven’t been blogging. I just haven’t been feeling it. Period. End of story.
I would like to point out that this was the first time this has happened, but it will probably not be the last time. In regards to the school year, the time between October and Thanksgiving is by far the laziest of the fall semester for me. In springtime, it happens right after Spring Break. Everyone is busy wrapped up in their little world of work. Nobody has excess time on their hands, and general work morale takes a dip. Just pretend that it’s my full time job to blog, and there you have it.
Now that this rant is out of the way, on to the blog post: October. This month has been quite strange in the way of weather. I have grown so accustomed to the climate in Houston, that I forgot that fall is an actual season. The trees around my school are showing their autumnal hues and beckoning the cool, if not cold nights.
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| View from outside my "homeroom class" |
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| Parking lot... |
Due to this fantastic weather, I have recently been obsessing over the idea of going to the park. The park that I want to highlight today is located in 松本市 (Matsumoto-city). I haven’t gone into too much detail about Matsumoto City, but keep in mind that my town has developed into a suburban-esque district of Matsumoto. If Matsumoto is Houston, then my town would be Sugarland or Katy.
Alps Park is located Northwest of downtown Matsumoto. It takes about 45 minutes on foot to get to the park entrance from Matsumoto station, and about ten minutes by car. I would assume biking would take half an hour, considering it’s atop a pretty steep hill. Things to consider:
1) It would be pretty crappy biking uphill to the park entrance from the train station.
2) It would be pretty epic biking downhill from the park entrance to the train station.
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| Front entrance to park. Matsumoto in distance. |
After we took in the view of Matsumoto City from the front of the park, we headed towards the play area. Of course, the play area was swarming with school-aged kids and their parents, but hey- that didn’t stop us. There were several play structures with chutes and ladders, an awesome obstacle course, and a dinosaur statue that couldn’t be passed without taking the obligatory photo.
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| Notice the awesome zip-line. |
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| Jimmy and Abi tackle the obstacle course. |
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| This creature reminds me so much of Rei. |
Once we finished romping around on the play equipment, we decided to mosey on over to the zoo. It wasn’t a particularly large zoo like the one in Houston or anything, but zoos are pretty cool, so it was good enough for me. It was fairly clean, the animals, with the exception of the monkey exhibit, looked like they had plenty of space to roam about, and above all else, it was free.
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| 動物園のちず |
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| タヌキ(tanuki) - Japanese Raccoon Dog |
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| ジミー & カレン hang out by the monkey exhibit. |
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| Birds from zoo aviary |
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| "I don't know why. I just like owls." |
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| Awkward photo of me as a Simpsons character-colored zookeeper. |
The zoo was great, and it’s probably one of my favorite places that I’ve been to in Japan so far, but there’s still more! Yes, my dear readers, I finally got to experience something that I’ve only imagined myself doing: I got to go on an alpine coaster.
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How to ride...
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| Admission ticket: Am I the only person that thinks this looks like the course map that appears in the bottom of your screen if you're playing a Mariokart game? |
400円 (about 4 USD) gets you one adult ticket and 2000円 (about 20 USD) gets you six. If you have time, and the number of people in your party is conducive for buying six tickets, I highly recommend going for it.
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| Toboggan |
アルプスドレームコースター！(Alps Dream Coaster) is open during the spring, summer, and fall seasons, with its last day of operation being on Christmas Day. When we went, the weather was perfect for “summer bobsledding,” but who’s to say I wouldn’t do this in the middle of December. After all, if you know me, you know I love me some rides.
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| Clockwise: Dreadedgaijin, Karen, Abi, Joy |
