My First Encounter With Godzilla

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(Edited)

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It was a lovely weekend in Autumn of 2020. My family went out of town to Awaji island and stopped by a lovely, spacious garden to view some beautiful flowers. There was more than enough space for social distancing and we were really in the mood for some “nature-embracing”. Is that even a word? Anyway, @theweekend was going well.
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On our way from there, we saw the sign for a park. It was our first time to the Hyogo Prefectural Awajishima Park. Some people now know it as “Nijigen No Mori”. It is anime-themed.
The park opened in 1985 and sits on 134.8 hectares of land. New attractions have been added and are being added. All this we found out after our first visit. It’s huge.

We were impressed by the large, “well-taken-care-of” lawns. We noticed some people had their tents out so we decided to get ours as well. We usually keep it in the trunk for road trips.

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We found a good spot to put our little tent. While huzzy, @bearmol was setting up things, I decided to go with the kids to find a restroom and to check out the park a bit.
The autumn foliage was really beautiful. We used the restroom and walked around. We did see some Godzilla signs but didn’t think anything about them. The signs or flags all said, ”Godzilla Interception Operation Awaji”. For a short while, I wondered what that really meant and thought it was merely a concept or something of that sort.

Godzilla In Town

Concept?!

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Soon after seeing the flags, we pounced upon...Godzilla. Well, it was either that or that he pounced upon us. Either way, we were shocked and excited but mostly shocked. We hadn’t thought that he’d actually be “in town”. We then saw people zip-lining through its mouth.

My kids seemed slightly scared as it was really huge. I held their hands to console us that things would be okay and that it was just... a gigantic Godzilla that hopefully wouldn’t decide to make any unwanted moves. A close-up shot of his teeth reminded me that I was no way comfortable. I quickly looked for a way of escape just incase things “got real”.

Keep Out

There were quite a few signs around. I noticed Godzilla’s “claw” was guarded off. Visitors were prohibited from entering that area.
I wouldn’t say its claw was cute but it was more than noticeable. I wouldn’t want to get too close. I was sure I didn’t have a problem with the law and that the law wouldn’t have had a problem with me.
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Did Someone Call My Name?

I thought it was a good time to head back to @bearmol to let him know that this park had way more than we were expecting.
As we turned to head back, I heard someone shout my name. Now, we were out of town, good distance from home, it wasn’t @bearmol’s voice and it was our first time to this park that we just happened to stop by. I’m not supposed to know anyone and no one is supposed to know me. Several thoughts quickly passed through my head.
I thought I either wasn’t hearing correctly or that someone else’s name was pretty close to my uncommon name. I then heard my name again. This time it seemed louder and closer. I wondered if monsters called names before they attacked.
I started walking faster with the kids but quickly turned around to see someone doing a friendly wave. I heard my name again and hesitantly returned a friendly-ish wave.
I watched carefully as the person removed her helmet and mask. Apparently she had just ziplined through Godzilla’s mouth and was on her way up to do it again.

”It’s me!”, she said and mentioned her name.

My brain then slowly recognized that it was a very good friend of mine who actually lived just a few blocks from my family. I saw excitement in her eyes and so I tried hard to transform the fright that was in mine. We were both surprised to see each other.
I felt the need to apologize about taking time to recognize her and had to explain that I just wasn’t expecting to see anyone I knew.
I then saw the other members of her family. They said hi to the kids and explained that Godzilla was a new attraction to the park. It had literally opened just a few weeks before that day, less than a month. They said “bye” and went off to continue ziplining. We hurried off to tell @bearmol all that was happening, what we saw and who we saw. It somehow felt like a lot was happening all at once.

As they got closer to daddy, the kids shouted,“Godzilla is here! Godzilla is here!” (as if they really knew him lol)

It seemed so surreal and oh so funny to explain it all to @bearmol. Our plan was to just chill, have some snacks and play some card games but we ditched all that. We ended up packing up our tent and then we all went to see Godzilla and some other areas of the park. We took a different route this time and realized that we could actually glimpse or see Godzilla in the distance from various areas of the park.
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The Godzilla attraction actually opened on October 10, 2020. The statue is the largest Godzilla statue in the world. It is 20 meters tall, 25 meters wide and 55 meters long. It is still unseen to many due to the pandemic.

Second Visit to The Park

We decided to re-visit the park this spring of 2021, just a few weeks ago. We noticed that new attractions were being built. ”Dragon Quest Island” was one of them. There was still free entry to the park but we saw gates being made. We somehow feel that eventually there will be a cost for entry to the park itself and not just for the attractions there.
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Godzilla Menu and Food Truck

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We saw a food truck and a few shops selling Godzilla items.
There were several food posters advertising the specials.
We saw creature-like plates of curry.
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There was black baum cake as a dessert item. Apparently it’s a part of the creature’s tail.
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They offered a colorful fruit punch. It seemed to have had a variety of fruits.
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I guess even the food itself is an adventure.

Cherry Blossoms and Crayon Shin-Chan

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We were able to view some lovely cherry blossoms though many petals had already fallen. They formed a lovely carpet of confetti on the ground.
We saw a beautiful pond and realized that there were other ziplines running through the park. It is difficult to cover the entire park all in one day.

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There were many figures of Shin-Chan and of his family.Crayon Shin-Chan is a popular manga character. Here are some of the figures we saw:

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Did I Go Zip-lining Through Godzilla’s Mouth?

So, I went to the park twice but mostly spoke about my first encounter. The big question is above.
If you’ve read this far, I’m sorry to disappoint you but even after a second visit, I have to let you know that I didn’t go zip lining through the creature’s mouth.

Here are my reasons:

1. I didn’t like the way we pounced upon each other. I did see the “red” flags but the sign should have read, “Big Godzilla Inside, Approach with Caution”.
I think one of us needed to apologize. Godzilla didn’t look like he would nor did he seem up for an apology.

2. On both occasions I went, there weren’t many people. Was there a reason for that? Did all the people that go through his mouth, come out safely?

3. My third reason is simple. His teeth weren’t exactly “smiley” nor did they look small or dull.

4. I noticed that Godzilla’s mouth was wide open. How long would he have been able to keep it that way? What if he just decided to close it after I went through? There were so many uncertainties.

5. One of my sons hadn’t reached the height requirement for the zipline. It would have seemed unfair for all other family members to do it. I really wanted to be the one to stay with him. I didn’t want him to feel left out. (Don’t rush growing up, son. Please don’t)

6. I didn’t think anyone should have forced me to get closer to Godzilla. It takes time to build relationships, right?! Furthermore, it’s a big park. There were other attractions that needed attention.

If you’re reading and thinking that I’m a scaredy-cat, I wouldn’t say you’re wrong. I’d just say... think what you want to think. 😂

If you’re in Japan, planning to re-visit or hope to visit, please check out this park, Hyogo Prefectural Park, Awajishima. It’s cool, beautiful each season, good for friends, families and of course, adventure.

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😃Thanks for stopping by.



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Lots of spacious green open space at this park. There is also a huge play area where kids could play freely. Nice park.

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Hiya, @choogirl here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1188.

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The landscape is amazing! Perfect place to visit in times of Corona:)

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😃 Thank you for stopping by. The landscape is really great. It refreshes the mind. It’s so spacious there. Great was to have family fun without being too close to others.

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I am a big fan of the old godzilla movies so would love to go here. Would be a hoot

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😃You’d certainly enjoy it there. Imagine just stopping by a park to chill a bit and then you see Godzilla. Lol! Crazy! We weren’t expecting it at all. Interesting too that it opened during a pandemic.
Some years ago I watched a little documentary on T.V about the making of the shows. It was quite interesting to see the miniature props they used to create such big movies.
I imagine the park will be a bigger hit when corona decides to behave and when borders open up. Lots of development seem to be happening on that side.
Thanks for the repost and please say hello to Badger.

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the way japanese people make their copy of sculptures in movies are so close to reality, id be scared seeing godzilla too, hahah

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Haha! You can imagine. I got accustomed to things looking real but no way was I expecting to see Godzilla. I was honestly confused and scared for a bit. You never know what a pandemic could bring.😂😂Lol! My family just went to a park for some fresh air. Oh my!
😃 Thanks for stooping by. Please read up on parks before you go.😂

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Look so fun!!!!! I bet your kids loved it!!

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I think they were a bit scared at first and then they thought it was really cool.

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