In speaking of Korakuen/Koishikawa, it is needless to say the place for LaQua and the Tokyo Dome.

Placed in basically the center of Tokyo, due to the rather easy accessibility on weekends it is very busy with a lot of people.

In Tokyo Dome, there are baseball games, concerts, and events held, and facilities at the amusement park where you can enjoy shopping/hot springs/bowling/a toy world for young children. However, although Korakuen is a prosperous place, if you walk a little further there is nature in which is rare in Tokyo, and rows of houses that makes you feel the Showa time period.

*Koishikawa Korakuen
This garden was built by the first generation feudal lord for Mito Tokugawa family as their inner mansion’s yard; it is the excursion style Tsukiyama fountain garden that was completed.

It is filled with a Chinese taste from the Chinese style places such as the Engetsukyo and the western embankments, the precincts of the yard is the most well-known garden among the few in the nation, also chosen as the special historical place and special place of noted beauty by the Cultural Properties Law.

Right behind the Tokyo Dome is a garden over 70,000 square meters where plum and cherry blossom trees are planted, and throughout the year all plants of the 4 seasons can be enjoyed.

The white thing that is shown behind is the roof of the Tokyo Dome.
I was surprised it was closer than I thought.
The picture below of the garden circle is where the Mito-han drawing room used to be.
Long ago, it was divided by the Karamon (Chinese gate), and seemed to be separated from the the big fountain “Koen”.

We find a beautiful lotus! It melts our hearts.

Please look at this picture.
It is such a surprise that there is a rice field in the middle of the city.
Every year in the season of planting rice it is done by the district’s elementary school children, and the rice that is cultivated is eaten by them for the lunch provided by the schools! (I heard that the taste is normal…)

In the back ground it is a green lush oasis while it is the city where you can see the Tokyo dome.
How about taking a stroll around here when visiting the Tokyo Dome City?
I think you will be able to discover a different side of Tokyo.

Where we headed next was Tokyo Dome City.
Tokyo Dome City is constructed of Tokyo Dome LaQua, Tokyo Dome Hotel, Korakuen Hall, Bowling center and attractions.
LaQua that opened in 2003 is City styled leisure facility that has spas (hot springs), shops, restaurants, and attractions; it is popular for being a playground for office ladies after their days at work.

After arriving at Dome City the first place we went towards is the Baseball Sports Museum.
It is Japan’s first baseball specialty museum.
In the baseball hall, there awards several people that contributed to Japan’s development in baseball, and to praise these achievements forever, it was built in 1959. 173 people were included into the hall until 2011.

Here, there is the “The baseball hall of fame” that awards those that contributed in the development of the baseball world’s relief portraits, and a large number of historical references and well-known data are preserved and displayed.
Also, it introduces the history of baseball that originated in America and how it migrated to Japan.

There are about 50,000 books and magazines that are based on baseball and other sports, starting with the 12 professional baseball team fan books, also amateur and foreign baseball.

At the film theatre, it is possible to watch professional baseball players play on a 120 inch big screen.

Good touching with the Hara director I love….lol it looked very real.

A scene I love anytime I look at it!
There is no axis in the center like the usual Ferris wheels have, and in the middle there is the roller coaster Thunder Dolphin that is going through the wheel. Everytime the roller coaster passes by you can hear “Ahhh” lol.

The first drop of the Thunder Dolphin is a pretty steep fall can you tell? It is 80 meters tall, the same height as the wheel’s highest point.

From the start it goes pretty fast with a 45 degree angle going up 80 meters.
After reaching its highest point at 80 meters, from that point on it falls at once at a 80 degree angle.

There is no moment to try to enjoy the pretty scenery from the top!
But you can fully enjoy the thrill and refreshing feeling. ★★★
I felt that it was such a nice rollercoaster that I want those who like rollercoasters to at least experience this once.

From there is the tower hacker. From here we fall from 80 meters as well! Looking down from the highest point makes you dizzy, but it does feel nice.

We walked around in the hot weather, so we went inside LaQua to cool ourselves down.

We wanted to go inside this Japanese style café, but gave up since there were a lot of people waiting in line. So I took a picture of the delicious looking menu.
There I found an old-fashioned sweets store I love.

Since we were already here, we decided to do an old-fashioned sweets store tour!
These are old-fashioned sweets that I haven’t seen in ages. I took a lot of pictures.

Before I knew…my basket looked like this♪

Because I got a little hungry, I was wandering around in LaQua looking for a nice place…
I came to see a Tsukiji Gindaco sign. There was a long line formed and I asked myself what should I do? But I really wanted to eat the takoyaki, so I decided to wait in the long line.

For staying in the line, you get to eat freshmade takoyaki.
The one I ordered on this day was the cod cheese takoyaki, The skin was crispy! And inside was juicy! It was very delicious with the cheese melting lavishly.

The octopus inside was very big and I was very pleased.

After some time, I came to today’s main point, the Bunkyo civic center.
It is the building right next to Marunouchi line Korakuen station, standing on the other side of Tokyo dome.

Bunkyo Civic center
It is the building with Bunkyo city hall and civic hall, with a site seeing platform that is 105 meters tall.
From the platform you can view the northern areas 180 degrees, and in the civic sky restaurant Tsubayama-sou you can view the southern side.

We went all the way up to the 25th floor at once by the elevator.
There is a thrill that can be felt with a glass made elevator.
This is the most famous spot to see mountain Fuji in Tokyo 23 wards.
Based on the season you can see the sun set right above the diamond Fuji, and a lot of camera men visit from December to January.

Looking towards Sumidagawa, we see the currently being built Sky Tree. It seemed like it was almost finished.

I think you can enjoy a luxurious time that is unbelievable as it sounds, but free of charge.

Taking a stroll in Koishikawa/Korakuen…
With the shopping and restaurants, amusement parks and spas, hotels, a facility that can be enjoyed from young children to elderly people.
For dates the amusement parks, bowling alleys, and restaurants are enjoyable, but also to relieve stress from work on your way home from work is also a good idea.