Night Illumination at Shinrin Park

Shinrin Park, the colloquial name for Musashi Kyuryo National Government park, is situated in Namegawa Town in the Hiki District of Saitama. It is a beautiful sprawling park with lots of attractions for a day out in nature. 

Every year they have three different night illumination displays - one at Halloween, one during Autumn leaves and one before Christmas. The current display lights up Autumn leaves by night and there are some light art installations too. The walk through the displays is about a kilometer long.

We try to make it to at least one display each year. This year we missed the Halloween illumination, which has been the kids favorite to date. However, we did go to the current autumn leaves display and much to the kids delight it is much more kid friendly than in previous years. 

They've added a few new features this year of which two are worth mentioning for the kids. One is the bubble blowing pirate ship near the entrance to the night illumination, which is held at the central gate. And the other, the talking tree by the arboretum, the last stop on the autumn illumination route. 

The display is on nightly, weather permitting, until December 1st. They don't open the park on rainy nights. Only the central gate opens for this event. The rest of the park closes at its usual time of 5 pm (4.30 pm from December 1st). Entrance to the park is 450 yen per adult, children go free. Parking is 300 yen for a night visit, 500 yen during the day.