We picked up our car this morning – a bit of a struggle because the satnav (absolutely essential) was only partly in English; fine if you have the phone number of the place you are going and it’s in the system; not fine if you only have an address because that requires entering Japanese characters. After an hour’s struggle with the young man at our car rental, we headed off for our first stop: a Dutch-themed amusement park of course.
And why go, we hear you asking? Why not, we say! We want to enjoy all aspects of Japanese cultural life, so what better? We were, needless to say, the only foreigners throughout the site which was wonderful – a kind of Dutch Disneyland:
We were entranced by the teddy bear entrance (couldn’t quite make the connection with the Netherlands but hey – who said everything needed to be accurate?) (oh, and this time me for scale):
It’s still full-on Halloween here with decorations everywhere:
A whole village is dedicated to Miffy:
Who is Miffy? Well, we’re glad you asked since we had to look it up as well. We are told that she’s a fictional female rabbit created by a Dutch author (aha!) in 1955 and now a global icon.
So there was Miffy everything – Miffy rides, Miffy merchandising, Miffy food, Miffy-related street names (well, not really) …
Our attempt to have lunch was, however, a disaster. We ordered something called a ‘Parisienne’ – the image made us think it was some kind of cheesy thing and it was listed under ‘mains’:
Turned out to be a sort of crispy sweet outside and creamy custard inside with token fruit … a bit of a shock when you’re expecting savoury.
But we loved the orderliness of the whole experience: buggies carefully lined up, dog pushchairs available, even little brushes on the table to dust away the crumbs when we had finished, themed litter bins …
So we’re off to find pizza tonight – let’s hope it’s better than the Parisienne!
Good to see you immersing yourselves in all things Japanese! Hope the pizza was more successful than the (rather delicious looking) parisienne.
Well, the main problem with the Parisienne was that it wasn’t a Japanese Dutch version of a French grilled sandwich. Expectation is all. The pizza was very nice.
Miffy, a global icon! Who knew?
Not us! The Japanese visitors certainly did – there were queues for all the Miffy rides and entertainments. I have somewhere a picture of the rules on admission to one of the Miffy entertainments which said you couldn’t go in if you had symptoms ( no indication of what) that were likely to get worse…
Thanks especially for Miffy – one likes to keep up with global icons. The elaborate DogBox reminded me of dog poo in the midst of all this enviable tidiness – what’s their management system? And sorry, one final question – are you hearing any echos of the World Series roars over here for Japanese greats Ohtani and Yamamoto?
Well, Tara, M has a posted a link at the end of our next Japanese dog experience that explains that particular cleaning issue. And sorry, no roars from the World Series though I’m completely confident there’s wall to wall coverage on the tv!
TBH, I’d expected healthier food 😆
You’re not alone in that expectation though in fact we’ve had some excellent sashimi and grilled eel and even some Wagyu beef. Bit of a shortage of green vegetables though…
Well that was seriously bizarre! Not sure I can imagine you doing this anywhere else in the world! Go team Mimisue
Well, you’re quite right in terms of Europe and the US though I’m sure I read about some pitch perfect versions of Venice and Rome somewhere in China…