Since I neglected to add one yesterday, here is the view from my room. And yes, it really looks this good. I can clearly see and hear the river!
This morning I went for a soak in the hot spring when it opened at 5 am. There were a few others there and I noticed they soaked much less than I did – only a few minutes at most. As I got out after about 15 minutes and almost fainted as I climbed the rough steps to the dressing room I reflected I should stay in a bit less next time.
After breakfast (a pork cutlet sandwich from a convenience store) and some more exploring (see the next entry) I walked to todays destination: Tobu World Square.
This is an outdoor theme park based around miniature (1:25 scale) reproductions of famous structures from all around the world. For the Aussies of a certain age, it’s a sort of Japanese ‘Cockington Green’. The descriptor ‘theme park’ is a bit of a stretch, since there’s nothing really to do except stroll around and admire the models.
This is the sort of place that has ‘limited’ appeal, and I immediately concede it’s not for everyone. But I was dazzled by the artistry of the reproductions and found the park charming.
The human figures are about 7 cm in height and some of the larger buildings, such as the forbidden city in China, easily contain hundreds of them. Very often little stories were ‘hidden’ amongst these figurines, likely missed by visitors who didn’t spend time to scrutinize a model.
The buildings vary from about 30 cm to several meters in height, and greatly resemble the originals. There’s almost no information on how they were made, but the detail level is astonishing and it’s remarkable to think some of these have been exposed to the elements for decades:
I was most interested in the ones I’d visited in real life. Neuschwanstein was a highlight and looked a lot like I recall, though I don’t remember the rooster riding a cat riding a dog riding a horse in the courtyard (this is a reference to the Bremen Town Musicians fairy tale):
There were a few gardeners doing their job while I was there and one of them was using microscissors – the blades were only a few millimeters – to remove individual leaves! I saw another guy cleaning a model using what looked like a baby’s toothbrush.
There were dozens of attractions in five themed sections, and each had descriptions in Japanese and English. I feel starting with modern Japan and the USA was a weak point, since the park certainly improved as you continued along.
My favourite individual model was Abu Simbel. The model is maybe 1.5 feet high and was exquisitely detailed. In fact the entire Egypt section was my favourite, even if it was the smallest in the park:
Tobu World Square more popular than I expected, with guests spanning the age range from a few children (who seemed bored) to the elderly. The place was clean and well-equipped, but as with Kinugawa it feels as if the best days of this attraction are behind it. Based on the dates on each diorama, there’s been very few significant additions in the last decade and certain aspects of the park are showing signs of decay? In addition, the fact that all the restaurants were closed seems telling…
The souvenir shop however was open, and it was remarkably well-stocked as Japanese souvenir stores often are. As soon as I saw they had a medal maker I knew they’d be getting ¥500 from me:
With a 32 character maximum, there was only one obvious choice for the phrase I’d add to my medal:
Surely that’s now amongst the best Tobu World Square souvenirs on Earth? Overall my visit was a little over two hours, and I enjoyed it a lot. It was probably overpriced (at ¥2800) but this is a ‘no budget’ holiday so such concerns never entered my mind 😉
Afterwards I took the local train back to Kinegawa Onsen station at which point I was treated to a steam train pulling out of the station!
I don’t know anything about this, but it looked like a tourist train although was empty as it departed.
I next followed the monkey signs…
…to the Kinugawa Ropeway. A round trip ticket of ¥1200 promised views and monkeys and only a fool would pass that up so I threw my money into the ticket machine.
The views were almost impressive. That’s looking down to the departure station, although the photo doesn’t do a great job of showing how steep the climb was.
That’s a view of Kinugawa from the top of the ropeway, with the monkey ‘park’ in the foreground. It’s a nice vista, but the best scenes here (for me) are right outside my hotel room: the river in the gorge and the corpses of dead hotels!
By the way, look at the above photo and be impressed that since arriving yesterday afternoon I have walked not once, not twice, but three times the distance from the town (center of photo) to the ropeway base! No wonder I’m almost passing out in the onsen 🙂
As for the monkeys…
They were wretched creatures imprisoned in a dirt enclosure. They paced and fidgeted and seemed as interested in me as I was in them. Signs warned they can be savage and merciless beasts, and the double layer of chain fence was obviously as much for my protection as theirs. Look at his face though: does he truly want to kill me, or is he asking me to kill him?
After all this I was ruined, and a double patty ‘100% wagyu beef’ burger (no sauce) from ‘Comet Burger’ may have been delivered on a golden platter by Archangel Michael himself it was so good:
It gave me just enough energy for a second soak in the hot spring, which once again almost led to death due to dehydration. Tomorrow I’ll soak less. I promise!