Journey to the Center of Japan

Looking back, I realize I neglected to post any pictures from Japan last week. As penance, I shall post a whole slew, taking you on a tour of one park I'm almost certain you have never been to.

Uguisuzawa's Mine Park!

Arriving in the parking lot. Out in the inaka, folks are big fans of scarecrows. If you've ever seen a Japanese crow, you'd understand why.

The Mine Park has it's own little mascot. This Astro Boy look-alike greets you as you enter. His mouth is suppose to move to the audio, announcing the beginning of your journey to the center of the Earth, it's jammed over the years.

It's hard to tell (low light and all), but this long, surprisingly scary tunnel is decorated by tin lanterns hammered out by little kids which just seems to make it even more creepy.

This somewhat unsettling scene is the first thing to greet your eyes as they adjust to the darkness.

Yes, those are Japanese animatronics.

And yes, they were just as creepy then as they are now.

At this point, the temperature dropped an ominous 10 degrees, signaling what in my mind was the 'Point of No Return'. We were about to delve deep into the Japanese interpretation of how the Earth was formed.

In this version, God is replaced by Lava Baby.

My poor memory mixed with poor image quality leads me to guess this was a picture of said Lava Baby's effects on the Earth.

This part I didn't get. All the lava stuff disappeared and turned into a 'Pan For Gold' station. The weirdest part about this section was that it was manned by two employees of the park who's day is apparently comprised of sitting by themselves some 1000ft below the Earth's surface waiting for folks to come by and hopefully pay the 500YEN to sift through a pan of mud.

After that, it was back to the history lesson with murals further depicting Earth's past.

That's right all you logic-impaired people, the Japanese 'believe' in dinosaurs. Than again, it could just be some 'mech' deposited there by an elite group of teenagers chosen to save the world.

Not really sure about this part but at least it was getting warmer by now.

Really not sure about this part- I'm guessing the plants are suppose to signal that we're heading towards the surface-world.

Oh, now it makes sense. This must be where those teens get the power to run their 'mechs'.

And finally, the end. I was somewhat relieved to see they hadn't locked in; we arrived 20mins before closing.