Huis Ten Bosch

On Wednesday, October 20th, I got off of work early in the afternoon, so Katie and I decided to spend the rest of the day in the Dutch theme park, Huis Ten Bosch, located next door to base housing. We left our apartment around 1:00 pm and took the 15-minute walk over to the Harbor (south) gate. We knew we wanted to purchase annual passes since we live so close and plan to visit often. Also, it's 7,000 yen for daily admission or 19,000 yen for an annual pass. We'd only have to go 2.5 times to get our money's worth, and we knew we would visit much more than that just to see their holiday decorations and eat at the awesome restaurants!

Once we got to the Harbor gate, we were informed that they don't sell annual passes at this gate and that they only sell them at the Welcome (north) Gate. So we were told we could buy the day pass at this gate, walk through the park to the other side and then buy the annual pass at the other gate; oh, and they'd take the price of the day pass off our annual pass. We got all of that from the nice lady at the ticket counter, with a language barrier, so we really hoped we understood correctly. We bought our pass and made our way to the other side of the park; Katie wanted to stop and see things along the way, but I was not about it. I did not want this annual pass ordeal hanging over our head, so I made us power walk all the way there. Fortunately, the park is fairly small, so it didn't take us long to trek across it. We made it to the front gate, had to walk out of the entrance despite the signs telling us "Not An Exit" and find the area that sold annual passes. We eventually found it, bought our annual passes, which have our pictures on them, and headed back into the park.

With annual passes in tow, we headed back into the park for exploring and found some great photo spots along the way. It's a little surreal to explore a Dutch-themed park in Japan! We sure are cultured! Huis Ten Bosch is famous for its open areas, great restaurants, and themed holiday decorations. Right now, everything is decked out in orange, yellow, black, and purple for Halloween, and even the flowers around the windmills had been replaced to match this color scheme!

Also, at a great surprise to us, Huis Ten Bosch was having a wine festival! For roughly $25 per person, you could buy wristbands and have unlimited wine tastings for the day...so obviously, Katie and I were down! We were each given a plastic wine glass and were able to enjoy wines from all over the world!

Did I mention that the wine tastings were unlimited? It's true! The Japanese are generous people. Below are some of the wines that we tasted throughout the night...Katie just told me that this wasn't even all of the wines we tasted....that's slightly embarrassing. To say we got our money's worth is an understatement!

As you can see, the labels are numbered and have the origin country's flag. This is how we chose our tastings through a random number generator! We'd randomly choose a number, order a glass and then proceed to another area of the park to explore, wine in hand.

As I mentioned earlier, the park was decorated for Halloween, so we had to take some pictures by the pumpkins and other decorations! I found it ironic that several of the pumpkins in the displays had Christian Bible verses on them. It's like these people invaded a Hobby Lobby back in the states!

By this point, we have enjoyed several glasses of wine apiece and it was time for a break from wine tasting to grab some dinner; Katie got a pizza while I got this really good hamburger steak! (Europe-themed Japanese-styled food? Yes.)

With full bellies and replenished wine glasses, we were ready to hit a few of the attractions, including a mirror maze and this pretty cool interactive art display. The art display used forced perspective to appear 3D, and we were all for it! Peep the picture of me looking like a pregnant mermaid...so elegant.

see if you can spot 9 animals

We also enjoyed the view from up high on the Ferris Wheel. The light show below was pretty cool- and we had seen the crew setting it up earlier in the day. The orange-lit tower can be seen from our kitchen window at home! Who knew we would ever live this close to a theme park?!

After visiting the other attractions, we made our way back to the wine cart and ended the night just sitting, relaxing, people-watching, and enjoying some wine. It's times like this that Katie and I enjoy talking about the future, where we see ourselves in the next few years, and what our goals are. It's times like this that I wish we could stop time and enjoy the moment forever.

As we got ready to leave the park, we ran into a dance party in Amsterdam Square. We couldn't help but giggle at the grown adults dancing along with the street performers! Only in Japan! We left the park a little before closing and enjoyed a quiet walk back to our apartment.

I mean look at this dance party?! It's like Zumba meets middle school PE line-dancing class! You can't help but smile!

It was an awesome afternoon at Huis Ten Bosch and we can't wait to visit more throughout the next year. Hugo and Reynolds aren't nearly as excited and instead vote we choose to stay home and cuddle for the day instead.

Looking forward to our next adventures! Stay tuned,

Bryan