Excursion to Chichibu

Okay.. How should I write about this excursion?? The journey was long and tiring as we need to travel about 2 hours to get to the place.. thus making the train fare rather expensive.. the crowds were huge too.. And the scenery is pathetic, compared to all the beautiful posters promoting the place, as almost half of the flowers either withering or died.. But yet, I don't regret going on this trip.. because of the group that I went with.. I had lots of fun.. :) :)

We (Aishah, Sarah and me) left Ikebukuro Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line to Han-No Station at 9.34am, where we would then change to Seibu Chichibu Line to get to Seibu Chichibu Station.. (Yeah I know, the naming of the stations aren't very creative.. :p ) Both section of the journey take about an hour each, thus making this a 2-hour trip.. There is also an express train, costing double with only a 30 minute reduction in traveling time.. We were unwilling to fork out that kind of money just to get there half an hour early..

However, something happened during the "transiting" between trains.. :p We made curry-puffs the day before and took them with us on the trip.. While we change to the train bound for Seibu Chichibu Station, we left the stuff in the earlier train.. When we realized it, all of us immediately rushed back to get the stuff.. Just as Sarah found the curry-puffs and we wanted to get back onto the train, the doors were closed and we could only stared at the train as it pulled away! Together with Aishah!!! Seemed like we "rescued" the curry-puff but got separated from her.. :x :x So the two of us had no choice but to wait for the next train..

By the time we reached our destination, it was almost noon.. There were 17 of us.. Malaysians mostly, with a few Caucasians who were friends of the organizer of this trip.. We went for lunch separately as the group was too big to fit into any of the restaurants nearby.. Then we took a 15-minutes walk to Shibazakura Hill (芝桜の丘) at Hitsujiyama Park (羊山公園)..

With all the posters showcasing the scenery of Shibazakura (Moss Phloxes) Hill, I was hoping to see something as beautiful, like this picture on the ticket..

and this is what I saw.. :x

It looked as if the paint on the canvas has faded.. :( And the need to pay 250yen to see a bunch of withering or dieing flowers didn't really help either..

To be fair, there were still some patches of really nicely bloomed flowers, like the ones shown below.. Yet, was it worth the time and money? Definitely not.. Maybe it was really nice in April, I don't know.. but the fact remains that all these were planted specifically to lure visitors.. There is nothing fantastic nor amazing about the flower patterns.. My take is, if these flowers were planted for the sole reason of attracting visitors, they could and should do a better job than this.. Maybe I am just being demanding... :p

Luckily, this trip wasn't on flowers only.. :) The people I went with made a huge difference here.. Even as most of the group had sorta given up and were just resting in the shades within the first hour, the three of us went around taking photos for almost thrice the time!! Again, took lots of candid shots and funny poses, which (unfortunately) won't be posted here.. :p I must admit, it was fun hanging out with young people.. ;) Sure made me feel young again.. :p :p

We left the place around 4.15pm, took the 5pm train back to Tokyo area.. reached home before 7.30pm.. tired, tanned but happy.. :) :)