My local park is awesome

So I might not have brought this up before, but I live in a city called Wakō (和光) which is in Saitama prefecture, just outside of Tokyo. Typically, I'll tell people outside of Japan that I live in Tokyo which, while it isn't strictly true is true enough (it's like a 20 minute walk to Tokyo).

There are a lot of things I like around here, but there's one place that I've been getting a lot of use out of: the local park.

Part of the long track.

It is called Wakō jyurinkoen (和光樹林公園 or わこうじゅりんこえん) which roughly translates to "Wakō forest park". This place pretty nice during hanami season, but it also contains a few jogging/walking paths which are really great.

They're not very long (one is 1000 m and the other is 800 m), but they're paved with some sort of red rubbery stuff that feels really nice to run on.  In addition, the longer path has markings indicating every 100 m, which is great if you're trying to keep track of your distance (the shorter path seems to have lost all but the 300 m and 700 m markings).

A portion of the
short track.

The paths are also pretty flat, which makes tripping unlikely (which is more than can be said for the sidewalks in my neighbourhood) and both paths run through some nice forested areas, which provide some shade as well as some nice scenery.

In principle, the trails allow for walking as well as running and the shorter trail is surrounded by a normal path on which bicycles are allowed. There's a convention for which direction one is supposed to walk around the trails (which is clearly indicated in a few places) and I've never seen anyone really getting in the way. As a result, this is really one of the more pleasant places to run around as far as I'm concerned (there are no worries about getting run over by cyclists or getting stuck by little old women burdened with groceries).

An unofficial trail.

As well as the designated jogging/walking tracks, there are some general use paths which are pretty wide and well-maintained and a number of unofficial trails that people have carved through the forests. It's probably not possible to get lost on these trails because the park isn't quite that big, but they're enough to take a nice, scenic walk through the woods.

In principle, there's also some exercise equipment (which I didn't photograph because people were using it and that's just awkward), a decent playground and a nice, large area for sitting or playing games. Across the street, there's also another park where people can barbecue.


And now for a picture of a stray cat I saw while walking in the park today.

He didn't seem to like being photographed.