Moerenuma Park

Yesterday we started our visit with the Costas with a trip to Moerenuma Park. Unfortunately, Jason had to work, but he didn't want to miss out on all the fun so he joined us at Nijo Market for some breakfast before heading in to campus.

Being the brave eater that he is, Jason went with sashimi for all his choices - oyster, scallop, and clam. Paired with a cup of tea. Quintessential Japanese breakfast. He and Anthony agreed that the scallop sashimi was delicious. Fiona stuck with grilling hers!

Allyson had an awesome looking bowl of crab soup:

After sending Jason off to work, the rest of us expertly navigated the subway to the bus to Moerenuma Park. Fiona and I were extra interested in checking this park out when we learned that it was largely designed by Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi - the artist who designed Black Slide Mantra, one of Fiona's favorite stops in Odori Park:

Interestingly, Moerenuma Park is built on a former land fill that was reclaimed when construction of the park began in 1988. It opened in 2005. When he was contracted by the Sapporo government to design the park, Noguchi created his master plan for the park which included a concept of "park that is considered to be one complete sculpture." Unfortunately, Noguchi died one year later, shortly after completing his miniature model of the park. The park was constructed using his master plan.

When we arrived at the park, the first building we came to was a bike rental facility where we were told that the park was "very large" (at nearly 470 acres, that is accurate!), and it was recommended that we rent bikes to fully explore the park. At the rental rate of $0.90/hr, we certainly weren't going to turn that down!

The bikes were awesome, and Fiona loved the freedom of speeding down the wide paths.

In general, I think Jason would enjoy checking this place out, but I mostly can't wait to get him there so I can watch him ride one of these bikes!!

There were so many interesting places to explore in the park. Our first stop was at this large glass pyramid which houses a gallery, restaurant, and event space.

Next up was a huge cherry grove sprinkled with small play areas with artistically designed play structures for kids. Each play area was connected by tree lined pathways like this one:

Fiona can't wait to go back and explore each of these areas (there were more than 10!) more thoroughly!

After playing for a bit, we made our way over to the park's center all fountain. It is so massive and uses so much water that it is only turned on for a display four times each day. The fountain itself is nearly 160 feet wide and sprays water over 80 feet in the air. The pictures really don't do it justice.

After the fountain show, we made a quick stop for refueling before continuing on to the rest of the park's sculptures - two of which are huge hills to climb offering views of the park and surrounding city. The integration of these into the landscape was a little difficult to capture in a picture, but they do really result in vision for the park itself to be seen as a sculpture!

This small mound and sculpture were at the base of a larger (but not the largest) hill walked to the top of in our explorations. Well, actually Allyson and I walked to the top. Fiona challenged Anthony to a race to the top!

Fiona won, but the effort came at a price.

Good news, she recovered quickly!

I was the one challenged to a race to the bottom. Can you guess who won that race??

We saved the biggest climb for our last stop of the day - 240 steps to the top! 

It wasn't 30 seconds after we made it to the top that Fiona spotted a secondary set of stairs that spiraled down the mountain. She immediately announced she was going to go back down so she could climb both sets of stairs and skipped off.

Needless to say, there was a little less skip in her step by the time she reappeared at the top!

It was a bit of a hazy day, so the mountains in the distance were difficult to make out, but even just the views onto the park were beautiful! 

After the walk back down the steps, we were all pretty exhausted, so we returned the bikes and headed back into town very happy to find this outdoor spot to relax and wait for Jason to meet us after work!

And now I'm off for a quick run before we start our next adventure! 

**Note: Photo credit for some of these goes to the Costas.