Every year Shinrin Park, also known as the Musashi Kyuryo National Government Park, has three illumination displays. The first two are in Autumn and the third is in the December. The fall foliage light up is the middle illumination event which takes place annually after the Halloween illumination is finished.
The route from the central gate to the Urban Arboretum has light-up installations, some with art displays. The Urban Arboretum itself has beautiful illumination and the neighboring Kaide area has the main fall foliage lit up.
The illumination generally starts the middle week of November and runs to early December. Access to this event is through the central gate of the park. All other entrances will be closed at the usual time of 4.30 pm. Only the central gate stays open until 8.30 pm for the illumination.
Getting there
By public transport
The nearest train station is Shinrinkoen station on the Tobu Tojo line which runs from Ikebukuro station in Tokyo. It takes about an hour on the train to the station and then about a ten minute ride on a bus. Please note they only put on night buses for the weekends (not weekdays) during the period of the illumination. On foot it takes more than 30 minutes to walk to the central gate from the station.
By car
The nearest highway exit is Ranzan Ogawa interchange of the Kanetsu Expressway. Higashimatsuyama Interchange is also relatively close. Parking costs 500 yen for a day, but if you are only coming for the night illumination it is 300 yen.
Lynda Hogan @lynda.hogan
Lynda has been in Japan for 20 years and blogging about Saitama on her personal blog insaitama.com for 14 of them. Despite its central location, just North of Tokyo, Saitama is still quite unknown to the international tourist, but frequented by domestic travelers. It is a great place to experien...
