Kannonzaki Park is located southeast of Yokosuka Naval base. The park is actually on the Kannonzaki Cape, which juts out of the Miura Peninsula into Tokyo Bay. I drove from our house in Ikego to Kannonzaki Park here was my route via the toll road.
It took me about 30 minutes. Another thing to note, there was lots of parking and at least today – it was free!
My research told me Kannonzaki is where Godzilla came out of the ocean to terrorize Tokyo. Fortunately, I had the place pretty much to myself and definitely not giant lizards.
I started my trek along the beach and slowly began my climb up the many and I must stress many, flights of stairs. I think Kannonzaki Park should translate to “Park with many stairs.” Up, up and away I stepped!
One of the main highlights of the park is the Kannonzaki Lighthouse. Seeing the Lighthouse was actually my main goal for going to the park. It was beautiful and the views of Tokyo Bay were spectacular.
Here is the current Kannonzaki Lighthouse. It was built in 1925 after the original lighthouse was destroyed in 1922 by an earthquake. The original Kannonzaki Lighthouse was built in 1867 by French engineer, Leonce Verny, right at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. It was the first Western style lighthouse to be built in Japan.
Check out how short the door was! And of course the giant light.
The park features a large network of trails to explore. I didn’t worry about getting lost, because there were maps boards located throughout the park as well as signs with distances. The only challenge was they were not written in English. I wouldn’t say I was ever “lost” maybe just “turned around.” I did have to double back once or twice and climb the stairs I just came down. I just chalked it up to getting a good quad workout today.
In the park there is a war memorial. There is both a statue and a large structure designed to look like the sail of a ship.
In the middle of the park is a large grassy field dotted with flower gardens and an orchard. I am sure this will look amazing in the spring and summer. There were only a few flowers around. Rumor has it, that on a clear day… you can see Mount Fuji from this area.
After walking around the picnic area, I had to make the decision to either head back to my car or continue walking towards the children’s playground. I decided to head towards the playground. I was super excited when I came across this amazing 150m slide! I watched a Japanese mom take her two daughters down. The sound you hear is the not me farting. It is the piece of cardboard I am sitting on going over the rollers on the slide. When I got to the end, the mom was there with her daughters and she laughed with me! It was pretty funny. Totally worth walking around the entire park to ride!!
After my slide, I walked back up and down many more stairs until I found my car!!
