It was a beautiful day last Sunday so my girlfriend and I went to Aquatic Park Kawagoe which is about 45 minutes away from where we live by train and bus. This was an unusually cheap place at only 700 yen although they do charge you to blow up your inflatables which dominate Japanese pools and beaches.

I can’t ever remember having such a device in England and always remember having to blow it up under your own steam.

Apart from the crowds (going round the floating circuit is as busy as when one leaves a football match or music concert) the other very Japanese thing is the use of tents or gazebo’s to shelter from the sun.

As the photos show there are loads of them! Another thing which I have only ever experienced in Japan is getting everyone to exit the pool every hour on the hour which I think is a safety precaution to stop people getting exhausted from swimming although the irony is that absolutely no-one is actually swimming.

Anyway, I guess it wouldn’t be Japan if there weren’t a load of rules to be followed.