tachikawa

From where we live it took me several trains and about an hour and a half to get to Tachikawa.

Tachikawa is still part of Tokyo, but on the very west side of Tokyo.

I had lunch at the station at a bakery called Sesto, before checking out Showa Kinen Koen (Showa Memorial Park).

Hot dog with sauerkraut, olives, cheese and a little ketchup.

I love that this bakery heated up my hot dog and even cut it in half.

I'll be back!

After lunch, I walked to the park in search of the poppies that I had seen on someone's Instagram.

I found out the hard way that there was admission (450 yen)...and that from the entrance I needed to walk 30-40 minutes to the poppy hill!

Apparently Showa Memorial Park is a little smaller than Hitachi Seaside Park (Ibaraki Prefecture)....and almost twice the size of Shinjuku Gyoen (Tokyo)...HUGE!

And with the temps blazing at 34C (93F) it made walking 30-40 minutes kind of painful...

But, look at all these poppies...beautiful yeah?!

Last Tuesday, we had major wind and rain (almost typhoon-ish) and lots of these poppies were "knocked" flat...luckily they revived with the blazing temps.

There was also a bouquet garden which I went through on my way out of the park.

I hope to come back to check out their tulips and cherry blossoms (early Spring) and maybe their autumn colors in the Fall...

Hot, perspiry and just plain gross...I stood in line for these berry puree and custard filled hand pies by Ringo.

Ringo is known for their custard apple pies (which we've tried and love) but for 4 days, they were only selling these...so delicious! glad we tried them.

Despite the heat, it was nice to check out this park and another part of Tokyo.

If you'd like to see some of the other photos/videos I took, please look here.

Sesto
Gran Duo Tachikawa 1F
Tachikawa, Tokyo
Phone: 042.540.2235
Hours: 10:00-21:00
Closed when Gran Duo is

Showa Memorial Park
3173 Midori-cho
Tachikawa, Tokyo
Phone: 042.528.1751
*check site for hours and days closed

Ringo
JR Tachikawa Station
Tachikawa, Tokyo
Phone: 042.548.9585
Hours: 10:00-22:00 (Mondays-Fridays), 10:00-21:00 (Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays)