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Hey Hive/Steemit!
So if you didn't catch the last couple of posts, we're currently on a journey in Fukuoka that we went on back in May 2017! Neither of us had ever been to that part of Japan before and since there were some cheap flights we decided to go explore a new region together! Here we go!
Last week, we paid a visit to a very special store - the LINE Friends Cafe & Store! Sean and I really like all the LINE Friends characters (especially Sally) so we always make it a point to stop by a LINE Friends Store in Japan!
Anyway, at the end of the post I shared a teaser for a very special place we'd be visiting today! So no more cliffhangers - here we go!
So if you recall when we first took the train to Arita Porcelain Park, we took this special train with an interesting name - Huis Ten Bosch!
We were really curious what place that was since it had a foreign name and when we looked it up on Google, we were blown away! And were really eager to go see it for ourselves!
27 May 2017. Saturday.
So back to the station we went! Unfortunately, we didn't get to ride the orange train this time but the train we took was actually fancier-looking!
We bought Sukiya gyudons for lunch again and ate it on the train since it was gonna be quite a journey.
We bought one big gyudon and one medium cheese gyudon! I bet you can guess which one is mine haha. And of course it was delicious as usual! And a very filling breakfast indeed.
We happily ate our lunch while zooming through the Kyushu region and eventually we arrived in the magical land of Huis Ten Bosch!
I was a little surprised because the train station wasn't attached to any building so we had to walk across that bridge to get to the main building.
The weather was a little warm since it was high noon and approaching summertime, but at least it makes for good lighting I guess.
The sky was so blue and clear and the greenery around made for such a lovely landscape!
I guess I should explain, but Huis Ten Bosch is a theme park in Nagasaki Prefecture which recreates a Dutch town! It is named after one of the residences of the Dutch Royal Family. The spacious resort is suffused with a European atmosphere with its picturesque canals, iconic windmills, beautiful gardens and architecture (Cr: Japan-Guide).
This is the Huis Ten Bosch hotel, which is definitely European-inspired.
There was even a London-style sightseeing bus that I believe is just for show, but it looked cool and really sold the European-style motif.
The official entrance was a ways away from the train station. We'd walked quite a bit and haven't even encountered the ticket booth yet. We initially thought it was free but we just hadn't got there yet.
But right at this alleyway was an owl forest! We didn't go in though since our usual strat for theme parks is to take a look around first and see what attractions are worth our time.
So apparently the resort is divided into two areas: the Theme Park Zone and the Harbor Zone. Both zones feature multiple free and paid attractions, although the majority of them are located in the Theme Park Zone. While access to the Theme Park Zone is restricted to park ticket holders, the outdoor areas of the Harbor Zone are also accessible to non-ticket holders. (Cr: Japan-Guide)
So after we got our tickets (at about 7000yen each btw yeesh), the first thing we saw when we first entered past the gate was this! I guess it was around Easter at the time, and it being modeled after a Dutch town makes for a fitting theme.
Past that was another walkway, which probably led into the theme park zone. There were small solar panels here too which I thought was a good idea since it was so sunny out!
I smelled something sweet nearby and when we went to check it out turns out it was a strawberry shop!
And not just a shop but it also had a strawberry sorting station as well!
I absolutely love Japanese strawberries! But they can be really pricey so we always buy the cheapest strawberries we can find, and they still taste really good!
After taking a quick look around, we finally arrived at the entrance!
Of course the first thing we see is the gift shop! And they had this very curious advertisement which I just had to photograph, of course.
We went in to take a quick look at all the merchandise available and there were a crap ton of snacks available!
And as expected of a Dutch-inspired village, there were so many chocolates on sale here!
And to make our start even better, we saw some cute doggos! They were so cute! Especially the brown Lassie-looking one!
I guess this was the actual entrance into the Theme Park zone, because we finally got our tickets checked here.
And just past the ticket barrier were these light installations! The egg farmer man looked a little creepy but cute at the same time.
The first building we encountered was this building called Teddy Bear Kingdom!
Unfortunately we didn't actually go in here since there was a crowd, but we did get a glimpse of this huge teddy!
And just past this building was an amazing sight to behold!
It really felt like we teleported to an entirely different country!
And man, it truly did look like a Dutch village! Or what I would imagine a Dutch village to look like! Especially with the canals and the flower field!
The flowers were definitely one of my favourite parts of the park! They were so pretty and colourful!
I'm normally not one for flowers, especially for gifts since I think they're a waste of money, but when they're in a field like this I love them. Just the landscape of different coloured flowers neatly arranged together is so pleasing.
There were actually quite a few people around, despite this park being located quite far away from the major cities.
Everything looked so pretty! Now I'm thankful for the bright sunlight so the flowers could really shine. And of course there were windmills too and cows too!
I think we even went inside the windmill since it was open, and this was what it looked like inside!
I'm not sure if this is accurate to real windmills though, but I guess so.?
All the flowers were soo pretty! I just couldn't stop taking photos of them everywhere! You could tell they were well cared for too, since the flowerbeds were very neat and clean.
Some of the windmills were under renovation or something, but I guess they would all look pretty similar on the inside regardless. But man, if I was a better photographer the scenery here would definitely be instagram-worthy.
It really didn't feel like we were in Japan anymore. If there weren't other people speaking Japanese around us I would think we were legit in Netherlands.
Those two spires definitely looked like they were part of some castle, and it did feel a little like we were in Disneyland if not for the absence of characters and branding.
Eventually we got to the first attraction which was the Adventure Park!
It definitely did look like it was made for kids though, as the inside of the Adventure Park was jungle-gym type obstacle course for kids to climb and traverse.
But there was also a really long zipline nearby that was more made for adults I think since it was quite high up.
The Adventure Park itself was pretty small, and there was this T-Rex as its mascot.
I was expecting it to be animatronic and move like the dinos do in Universal Studios but I guess this one doesn't. It still looked pretty scary/cool though.
And with that I think I'll end it off here for now! Tune in next week when we explore more of Huis Ten Bosch! This will probably take a few posts since I have a crap ton of photos to share so look forward to that!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #102 (Japan 4.0: Fukuoka): Chillin' with LINE Friends 🐻🐥
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So beautiful. I’ve never been to Fukuoka.