When the Japanese decide to build something that isn’t weird, or tacky, or unintentionally funny, they end up making some really lovely stuff. The park on Kenroku is meant to show off the trees for sale in the nearby store, and to great effect. Their claim to fame is that the trees change with the seasons, giving you a reason to come back every few weeks.
The park comes off as The Most Stunningly Well-Tended Park You’ve Ever Seen. There’s nothing out of place, and yet the paths are twisty and hilly enough to keep it from being boring. Climb a bit and you get a great view of the nearby fort.
Like I said, it’s like a model park. I wonder if real-life Japanese parks are this clean?
The fort is impressive from the outside, but turns out to be unexciting from the inside. There’s a few empty buildings and not much more.
Senroku, the region next door, is dedicated to a set of massive bridges that will take you to Sengoku (which will be looked at i another post).
There’s a free boat ride on the beach in Senroku that needs a little debugging. Luckily, it’s short enough that if you hold your breath you should survive until you resurface. I think.
Back on Kenroku, take a look at the bus out on the street. You can’t drive it, but it’s an interesting piece, meant to promote the bus company. The door slides open realistically, seats swivel, the DVD player comes down. It’s a nice piece of work.
December 11, 2008 at 11:48 am |
Ah, Kenroku, my favorite sim with a garden. It is actually based on a real garden of the same name, and they reproduced all of the major buildings and vantage points very faithfully. Real life Japanese parks tend to be that well kept, with maybe a few leaves here and there, but they are meticulous about keeping everything nice, even going as far as to wrap sensitive trees in rather decorative straw mats to protect agaisnt winter damage.
From what I’ve read the creator actually didn’t intend to sell the trees but people wanted them so they put them on sale. I was so impressed with the trees that I bought a couple for my own garden.