Me and Phill. He invited me to bike at the park.

It’s been about 3 weeks since I have moved in Tachikawa Garden Town. It’s one of the Oak Apartments located in Tachikawa. One of the biggest cities on the west side of Tokyo. Tachikawa is located along Chuo-line which conveniently covers access to many areas including Kichijoji, Nakano, Shinjuku, and Tokyo Station (Shinkansen terminal).
I liked the city even before I thought about moving to Tachikawa and I had been there a couple of times. My favorite spot is Showa Kinen Park（昭和記念公園）. It’s one of the biggest parks in entire Tokyo and it’s almost the only park I can play disc golf. If you know disc golf, you know how much space you need to build the disc golf course. It is almost impossible to find this kind of huge space in Tokyo.

This huge ground is located at the center of the park but this is just the small part of the entire park.

How come there’s such big park in Tachikawa? Showa Kinen Park is where US army base was once located. After the world war II, the huge land was returned to the Japanese government in the 70s and the government opened the park in the 80s. A part of the space is still used for SDF (Self-Defence Force) base.
The park is so huge but also very well-maintained.

Beautiful tulips were everywhere. Very photogenic.

That is probably why Showa Kinen Park is one of the few national parks that you need to pay to enter. As of April 2018, it costs 450 yen to enter the park.

Last week, I went to the park with Phil, one of the guys living in Tachikawa Garden Town, for cycling. I actually did not know that there’s a biking course in the park and you get to access most spots in the park taking this biking course.

The red lines on the map are the bike course. It took us about 30 mins to go around.

It is such a nice cycling course because you’re not supposed to walk on this road. It is a bike-only course which makes it so much easier to go around. The course has two ways so you never have to worry about other cyclists coming toward you. There are roundabouts at the intersections so it’s safer than traffic lights.

Rental bikes are available at the gate for 400 yen or so. You don’t have to bike all the time after you enter the cycling course. You can park the bike at park stations located in the course and walk around the park too.

Indonesian fried rice I got in the park.

There is some food you can buy and eat in the park. It is super nice to eat outside on a beautiful day we went. So you can enter the park and stay there the whole day if you want. There are many people with big cameras. The flowers in the park are very well maintained so I guess that’s what the camera guys are for.

Beautiful flowers in the park.

It is great that our Oak Apartment is located within walking distance to this park. I’d definitely go back to the park sometime for exercise or just to relax in nature.