Originally Posted by
csycsycsy
Haha, we did wonder though the etymology of the name,
not settled apparently?
Post peak the park's day time entrance fee includes the night time illumination (but no re-entry) so we stayed (and paid the equivalent of the night time fee in the in park F&B outlets).
Planned to leave the park around 7ish and thought it would be a bit late to get back down to Tokyo so took the train one stop to Ashikaga Station and stayed at a
B&B at 1/5 the price of Tokyo hotel
Next morning checked out the adjacent
Ashikaga Gakkō, and the next door
tourism office/gift store was pretty cool too.
Took the Ryomo train from Ashikaga (Tobu) station direct to Asakusa (1hrs) and it was more comfortable than the JR local through Oyama we took going up.
All in a lovely 24 hours and perhaps an anecdote to the 'Tokyo is not Japan' topic over on the BA board, thank you again for the tip off!
Thank you for sharing this,
I also have the opinion that Tokyo/Greater Tokyo is more than the sum of its parts.
If you have the time on your next visit I recommend setting some aside for a trip to Showa Kinen Koen. Doesn’t seem to make it on many visitors’ itineraries but we (my family) are drawn back year after year.
My favourite place to go in Golden Week is the Nihon Minka En, there are more events and demonstrations than usual when its at its busiest but even at this peak time it’s never particularly crowded, and just 4 stops away near Shin-Yurigaoka Station is Shōga Ryōri Shōga
生姜料理 しょうが . Everyone has their own idealisation of Japan, the lady who runs this restaurant encapsulates an enormous chunk of mine.