If you’re curious what would it look like on another planet (or in the apocalyptic world after the global financial crisis), step into the Onioshidashi volcanic park in Japan!

Onioshidashi-en (鬼押出し園) is a huge natural park in Gunma Prefecture that was created after the catastrophic eruption of the Mt. Asama volcano on August 5, 1783. On that fateful day, a 7 km (4.3 miles) wide stream of flaming lava from the volcano — which, mind you, is still active today — swallowed the entire surrounding area and wiped a nearby village of Kanbara off the map. It is said that the ashes reached as far away as Europe.

The Kannon-do temple stands among molten volcanic rocks that cover the entire area. Mt. Asama is seen in the background.

The volcano last erupted in 1973 and the steam has been coming out ever since. For security reasons, hiking is prohibited within a 4 km (2.5 mile) circle around the crater.

The Onioshidashi-en park which is 12 km (7.5 miles) long, 3 km (1.9 miles) wide and located something over 1300 meters (4265 ft) above sea level, is considered one of the three greatest volcanic sights in the world. Nowadays, brave tourists can hike on a 2.7 km (1.6 mile) long trail that meanders through the sea of molten lava and offers a spectacular panoramic view of this very unusual landscape.

How to get there? Regular buses Seibu Kogen can take you to Onioshidashi-en from Naka-Karuizawa Station (about 35 minutes) or from Karuizawa Station (about 50 minutes) which is also connected to a JR line. Near the entrance they have plenty of souvenir shops, resting places and a restaurant. The park is open daily from 8 AM to 5 PM and is closed in winter months.

Want to see more? I invite you to take a look at the rest of the photos I took at Onioshidashi. Fantastic scenery!

Gallery: Onioshidashi Volcanic Park
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Where in Japan is Onioshidashi:

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Address: 1053 Kanbara, Tsumagoi-mura, Agatsuma-gun, Gunma-ken, Japan

The calendar shows we’re nearing the end of January and that’s exactly why you’d think that all holiday illuminations have been switched off for the year. But in Japan it’s not over yet. In some recent articles we were hunting for holiday lights in Tokyo, this time let’s go a bit further up north to the rural Ashikaga City, about 100 km away from the Japanese capital.

What’s famous about Ashikaga? The Ashikaga Flower Park of course! Here every year in freezing cold weather from November through January people come to enjoy some very impressive illuminations.

If you’re heading there by train from Tokyo, the cheapest and quickest way is to take the Utsunomiya line from Ueno to Oyama, then Ryomo line to Tomita station that’s one stop before Ashikaga. Altogether it will take about an hour and a half. From Tomita it’s only about 800 meters to the flower park which according to Japanese calculations translates to 10 minutes of walk (Japanese scientists have found that 80 meters means 1 minute of walk and that is the standard for measuring walking distance here).

The miniature Tomita station doesn't really give impression there's anything special in this town.

Botanists will be happy that the park is very famous for its wisterias. There are about 160 of them here which are over 60 years old and one reached a respectable age of 100 years. Sellers of fertilizers will be disappointed by the fact that the park buried 260 tonnes of charcoal for composting the soil and purifying the air in an eco-friendly manner.

Now, let’s move on to the illumination masterpieces.

Happy New Year 2010 indeed!

Ponds can look something like this, too.

Modern Venice.

Don’t forget to check our more pictures in our gallery:

Gallery: Ashikaga Flower Park Illuminations
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It’s almost Christmas, so let’s check out some illuminations and decorations around the city! A couple of days ago we took a stroll along Omotesando Dori, an upscale avenue in Tokyo that connects Aoyama and Harajuku. Here you’ll find all the priciest brand name stores like Prada, Dior and Armani lined up one after another. We were pretty impressed with the illuminations of eco-friendly LED lights they put up for the holidays.

Echika bunny greeting visitors in the Omotesando Station. Echika is a shopping complex located under the station.

This building has flickering lights all over the front wall.

The extravagant entrance of Anniversaire.

Let's grab some bags at Louis Vuitton.

People snapping photos in front of the entrance to Omotesando Hills, a famous shopping complex.

Impressive illuminations inside Omotesando Hills. The vertical hanging pillars make the place look even higher than it already is.

Couldn't resist taking this shot.

The Dior building shining in red.

Gucci welcomes you to the store.

Can't miss the glowing red of Emporio Armani.

Some very small sweaters on display at United Colors of Benetton.

View from a pedestrian bridge over Omotesando Dori.

The viewing of autumn leaves has always been a popular activity for Japanese people, just like the viewing of cherry blossoms in spring.

Below you can see some photos I took in Kumoba Ike, a park in the town of Karuizawa which is a famous tourist spot, especially in this time of the year. You’ll see tons of domestic and foreign tourists coming to this small town that even has a stop for the shinkansen bullet train.

Karuizawa is located in Nagano Prefecture and is the only place in the world that hosted sports events in both Summer (1964) and Winter Olympic Games (1998).

Tokyo has plenty of parks and one of those is Toneri Koen in Adachi Ward which is a huge park for recreation and other activities. Thought I’d write a post about it since it’s located not far from our place, about 10 minutes walk. Comes in handy when you want to relax your nerves, stretch the muscles and breathe some fresh oxygen. By the way, the word koen in Japanese means – park.

The park itself, besides grass and trees obviously, has ponds, streams, small lake, children paygrounds, tennis courts, fields for baseball and athletics, more than enough space for picnics and one interesting thing that’s not so common in public parks — equipment for doing various exercises, along with instructions on how to use them.

Many Japanese give a lot of importance to recreation and often even at 7 in the morning, you’ll see parks full of sporty seniors jogging around and practicing some intense exercise that would shock a lot of today’s teenagers who train their finger muscles with the help of Nintendo Wii and Playstation.

Japanese parks typically look very natural with greenery growing without human interference. Some parts are taken care of where necessary, but mostly they let nature create the scenery by itself.  The result is that the parks look very fresh and you have a feeling that you’re indeed in a natural environment instead of in a place where everything was exactly planned out by whoever built the park, and — let alone — have some statue of an important political leader jump out from behind a bush. Toneri Koen is no exception and just by looking at photos, I’d find it hard to believe it’s not far from central Tokyo that a lot of people would imagine is nothing but highrise and crowded streets.

Tokyo Bureau of Construction has a brochure of Toneri Koen which you can download here as a PDF file.

Last weekend I took a few shots around the park:

A view from one of the hills in the park.

You can’t see the water, but there’s a lake under these plants.

Another senior gymnast who pulled himself up so many times I had to stop counting. Is the secret in food, green tea, sitting on the floor instead of chair?

Erika shows how to get your feet massaged.

Free exercise equipment.

In Japan one can hardly find a naked dog. Nearly all of them are dressed up or use some kind of a fashion accessory.

Surprisingly, many people who fish do so just for fun, then they throw the fish back into the water.

Toneri Koen station right next to the main park entrance.

A herb garden managed by volunteers. The structure in the background is the rail for Toneri Liner.

A zeppelin in sunset.