Art in the Mountains - The Toge Small Art Museum in Naganuma Park

Naganuma Park (長沼公園), located about 45 minutes west of Tokyo, makes for a nice day trip from the metropolis. It's an easy 10-minute walk from Naganuma Station, which is on the Keio Line.

 You can do a circuit around the park's walking trails in a couple of hours.

The trail maps are all in Japanese, but carry a compass (or a smartphone, I suppose) and follow the "you are here" (現在地) pointers on the maps, and it's easy enough to get around.

The park offers nice views, bridges across little streams, and impressive open spaces that can't be found in the city.

More after the jump:

Gundam Ichiban Kuji 7-11 Goods

I've come to enjoy walking into 7-11's and seeing the latest Ichiban Kuji - which translates to "Number One Lottery" - goods. They seem to cycle through once every month or two.

This time around, Gundam is the theme...with a twist. Instead of just the standard statuettes, towels, and placemats, these goods have a practical, home goods bent. It's like Gundam Day at Home Depot.

As a reminder, the way these work is you pick up a ticket from the display and bring it to the register. You pay the amount (usually in the 300-600 yen range) and choose a card randomly. The letter on the card corresponds to the type of good you can claim. A is the top prize. There is, I believe, just one of these per store. The next tier is B, and then C, and so on.

After the jump, let's have a look at the prizes:

Star Wars x Japan Post Office Hologram + Lenticular New Year's Cards

The Japanese post office has a knack for putting out visually stunning Star Wars items. As part of their massive 2017 New Year's collection, they've put out two choices to send Star Wars fans in your life.

The first, shown above, is a 3D hologram. The image is based on one of the original iconic movie posters from 1977.

The back of the card. Typically for New Year's cards, people just write a few words of well wishes for the coming year.

The second card has a lenticular image with Darth Vader in the foreground and images from Episodes 1-6 in the background.

A tilt of the card shows the secondary image, with Vader's saber extending and retracting and variant images from the movies in the background.

post card back

Classic Star Wars poster image