German lights

Visiting the Tokyo German Village kicked off my winter illumination tour. Although the park has "Tokyo" in its name, the park is actually in Chiba, a neighboring prefecture that also houses the Narita International Airport and Tokyo Disneyland. 

I read that the park was holding a Xmas market, so I got to the park a couple of hours before the lights are turned on so I can check out the market, but it wasn't all that great. I had a quick bite to eat at the snack bar and went to watch the sun go down behind the hills. 

The lights come and and it gets dark soon after. I got the lay of the land while it was still light out. There were also interactive lights, like a plugging in a huge plug and a skeleton gets electrocuted. It was funny and cute. There were also lights dancing to music. I don't know what it is with these theme parks with light shows, but a dinosaur section is a common thing. 

Out behind ferris wheel was a torii gate (gates found at the entrance of Shinto shrines that act as a symbol to mark the transition from the normal everyday world to the sacred). It was weird how it was tucked way out in the back where it could've been easily missed. 

I walked through the lights and it looked like they were laid out in a pattern but I couldn't tell what it was until I got to higher ground. There was an observation deck up the hill that gave a full view of the park. The lights were laid out to show a picture of Gulliver tied down by the tiny Lilliputians. The shadows of the visitors walking through the lights looked like tiny people going to and fro.

It was pretty cool seeing the full picture. The park isn't all that conveniently located and there's not much to see in the area, so I don't know if I want to visit the park again.