Toyohashi Things to Do

Guidebook says it takes six minutes walk from JR Futagawa station to Non-Hoi Park. How could it be! Particularly with children. But 10 minutes walk to the park will be rewarded by seeing the cute dino and animal statues along the road.

Perched atop a hill extension of the mountain range forming prefectural border between Aichi and Shizuoka is a kannon statue. Iwaya Kannon had been and still is one of the major landmarks in Toyohashi for travelers and walkers of Tokaido. The hill area is now a park called Iyaya Ryokuchi (Iwaya Green).

Tateiwa is a crag near the JR Shinjohara station near the prefectural border between Aichi and Shizuoka. This crag is popular among local rock climbers but Toyohashi city officials warn that they cannot be sure whether climbing that crag is safe enough. People who worship the rock as the object of worship also raise the eyebrows for recent rush of climbers fearing climbers could damage the sacred rock.

This natural history museum may consume about 2 hours just going through Paleozoic through Cenozoic section but to get the topographical information of Toyohashi area, maybe you may have to visit this section first. There are two important exhibits you may never miss: 1 Central Tectonic Line booth and 2 Shiokawa Higata exhibit. On Central Tectonic booth you can see the fault line from the sky by pushing the A button. Pushing B button you can enjoy the beautiful seacoast around Toyohashi. And Shiokawa Higata display about 7 minutes is also impressive. This display in Japanese describe the life of Shiokawa Higata(Tidal Flat) during one day. There are also exhibits on Mt. Ishimakisan and Imo Bog, major topographic features around Toyohashi. Also impressive is the exhibits on the rich marine life of Mikawa Bay.

Until the Dinosaur Museum in Fukui was built, this museum was said to be #1 Natural History Museum in Japan. Recently the museum has been doing renovation so that the museum could be up-to-date as much as possible. It had Paleozoic section renovated in 2004, Mesozoic section, 2008. Probably the next renovation will take place in Cenozoic section. But it seems not so immediate future. I got grade A in Earth Science during my high-school days but to fully understand the exhibit even though I understand Japanese seems pretty difficult. For example in Paleozoic and Precambrian era section, there are some 4 billion year stones indicating the first sign of life-form on Earth. This is too up-to-date for me! There are few material for non-Japanese visitors. Museum phamphlet is available in Japanese, English and Portuguese but not Chinese and Korean not reflecting that the park is also popular among them.

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Non-Hoi Park has an observation tower about 48 meters from the ground and its observation floor, 37 meters, has a great view of not only the park itself but the of the places like central Toyohashi area, part of Mikawa Bay, Yumihari Mountains. Particularly the view of Iwaya Kannon on the craggy hill is impressive.

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The garden area of the Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park has recently been brought to attention because of "Monet Garden". Not only that this garden was designed to recreate the atmosphere of Claude Monet's masterpiece painting "The Nymphets (The Water Lilies)", but the water lilies in this garden were brought from the real Monet Garden in France. The garden area also has a Japanese garden with a pottery kiln. Adding pottery kiln in the Japanese garden is really a bright idea.

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In Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park, there is an amusement park area with a roller-coaster, a ferris wheel, 50 meters high, a merry-go-round and even shooting coaster ride. It may not be enough for teenagers seeking thrills but for family with younger kids it is good enough, I suppose.