Showa Kinen Park, Tokyo (Japanese person explain how to enjoy)

If you have chance to come to Tokyo to work, travel or study, you might be wondering whether there is any place to reduce your lack of exercise or to enjoy with your family with rich nature environment.

I that case, what about going to Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa, one of the largest national park with rich nature in Tokyo?

In this article I’d like to introduce Showa Kinen Park such as how to access, what are attractions, etc.

What is Showa Kinen Park?

Showa Kinen Park used to be Tachikawa airbase belonged by US army until 1977 and it returned back to be part of Tokyo since then.

To commemorate Japanese Showa Emperor 50 years anniversary of taking his position, the huge park covering 1,653,000 square meters was constructed.

You may refer to map of this park from below link.

There is a lot of rich nature in this park, and there are many places for children to play as well.

How to access

By train, there are two stations near Showa Kinen Park.

Tachikawa Station

One of the near stations is Tachikawa Station. Around 30 minutes from Shinjuku station by JR Chuo line.

However, I won’t recommend you to go to the park from Tachikawa station if it is your first time to go there because it takes around 15 minutes to get to the park from the station.

Nishi Tachikawa Station

The nearest station to Showa Kinen Park is Nishi Tachikawa Station.

To get there, you need to arrive at Tachikawa station first, around 30 minutes from Shinjuku station by JR Chuo line.

Then, transfer to Ome line and next stop is Nishi Tachikawa Station.

If you get off at Nishi Tachikawa Station, and go north for 1 minutes, you can easily find entrance to the park.

Entrance fee & Opening hours

I’d like to show Entrance fee & Opening hours

Entrance fee

Adult (over 15 years old) 450 yen

Adult over 65 years old 210 yen

Child (0 to 14 years old) Free

You may use Suica/Pasmo (Electric payment for Train) to enter if you have.

Opening hours

9:30 to 16:30 (Closing time depends on seasons)

How to move inside the park

There are mainly 3 ways to move inside the park.

I personally recommend using bicycle to move around.

On foot

Of course there is pedestrian path, so walking inside the park is absolutely no problem, however, the park is huge and it takes more than 30 minutes just walk from South to North of the park, not much efficient to see and enjoy in a lot of spots.

Bicycle

Bicycle is the best tool to move around the park.

There are bicycle rental places near entrances.

There are a lot of types of bicycle for kids to adults.

If you have kids, you may borrow below types of bicycle depending on their ages.

Park Train

Park train is running inside the park as well so you may take it to go to your destination.

If you move around the park on foot, you may sometimes get on this train to go to next destination.

Attractions

There are too many attractions available inside Showa Kinen Park and I’d like to introduce some of them.

Open Field (Minna no Harappa)

Open field is the symbol of this memorial park.

There is huge open field and one giant keyaki tree at center.

Many people lie down and play with balls in this fields on holiday in Japan.

There are several shops to buy playing tools and foods near the field.

Children’s Forest (Kodomo no Mori)

Inside Children’s forest, there are a lot of play ground equipment and facilities which attract all the children such as giant trampoline, long slides, hammock, etc.

It is almost impossible to play with all the equipment available in the forest in a day.

Flower Hill

It is the largest about 15,000 square meters flower garden in the park.

Depending on seasons there are certain flowers blooming such as poppies in Spring and cosmos in Autumn.

Gingko Tree Avenue (Katarai no Ichou Namiki) in November

In November, you can see Gingko trees continuing for 300 square meters.

It looks like you are in another dimension world of yellow.

Canal

If you enter entrance near Tachikawa Station there are 5 fountains with gingko trees.

Rainbow pool in Summer

In Summer, you can enjoy huge swimming pool. There are total 9 types of pools and attracting water slides.

There are more attractions which I cannot introduce this time.

Conclusion

If you want to get fresh air by rich nature with your family, how about going to Showa Kinen Park?

It attracts a lot of visitors and spots can vary depending on seasons.

I hope you enjoy there and have good time.

Thank you for reading this article till the end.