Little world

No, I am not talking about the size of this beautiful world where we live in. Little World is one of the major attractions at Inuyama and we had been there last weekend........finally. We have been planning to visit Inuyama from past one month but have been postponing it due to our laziness and greed for those extra hours of sleep during the weekend. After a lot of blame game, me and my husband came to a consensus of making it to Inuyama on saturday, the 12th. But the rain god had other plans. To our dismay, saturday was supposed to be a rainy day. We deserved the disappointment, as we hadnt bothered to check the weather forecast before planning, though we live in a country where weather forecasts almost never go wrong. So we decided to go the next day, if weather was good. My hubby's colleague Lakshmi was also supposed to join us. Thankfully, it was great weather on Sunday. We reached Nagoya station to take a train to Inuyama at 10:45 though the time we had earlier decided was 9:45. The start was not very good and so I had no high expectations about the rest of the day or the place.

We reached Inuyama (which literally translates to Dog Mountain and am not very sure of the history behind the name) at around 11:45 and got an english pamphlet which listed the major attractions to be visited. I had already checked the internet earlier and decided to visit the Inuyama Castle and Meiji Mura Open air museum. On checking the pamphlet we decided to visit "Little World" first. Change of plan again, sure the day was going to be bad.... I decided. Also it was so cold and windy at Inuyama and it was just 12pm. To add on to my worries, Preksha was so clingy and would not even go to her dad or sit in her stroller. After a 20-25 minute bus ride we reached Little World.

Little World is a park which houses the building styles from around 20 different countries in actual size. At each country's location, there are craft shops, a restaurant which serves that country's food and a costume counter where visitors can try out the costume of that country and get their pictures clicked. The first houses we visited were of Japan's Okinawa and Hokkaido and then going through Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, France, Italy, Germany, Peru and many more , we finished our walk at the Indian house. Though cold and windy, it was a bright day and the autumn colours were just beginning. We could see some trees in light yellow and light hues of red along the path. It made a perfect weather and location to take pictures and my hubby was the happiest of all as it was the first time he was photographing outdoors with his new digital camera. Preksha's mood had also improved and I got enough time to do all the girl talk with Lakshmi who was also thoroughly enjoying the day. Me and Lakshmi tried out the Peruvian attire which was a white top and a white skirt with laces and a wide brim hat with flowers around it and kept my hubby busy as he had to click so many pictures of the two Peruvians. We had spaghetti and margerita pizza at the Italian restaurant and continued our walk along the path lined with trees in green, yellow and red.

The Indian house was a surprise because the building there was that of Kerala and being from Kerala we were so happy and amazed at the perfection with which things were depicted. There were sign boards in yellow with malayalam and English written on it along the path (like the ones we see along the highways in India) and the house was almost perfect. The hall had a photo of Lord Krishna, a calendar from some jewellery shop, many black and white photographs and so many other things which was typical of old houses I have seen in kerala. There were snaps of people wearing the mala(to Shabarimala) which is typical of the photos I have seen in most of the houses in Kerala. They even had a BPL TV and the bulbs were all of PHILIPS. The kitchen had exactly the kind of things I have seen in all my aunts' and uncles' houses in Kerala. There was an electric post outside the house, exactly like the one we see in India. The restaurant also looked like one of those you see on the highways in Kerala but the food was north indian though, with the menu having naan and north indian sabzis. There was a costume counter which was crowded with japanese women and others alike to try out the Indian saree. The costume was complete with bangles and bindi and the women seemed to be enjoying wearing the bright sarees. They were walking around so effortlessly with the saree on, that it had me thinking of those days in college when, walking with a saree on was always a challenge.

It was 4pm by then and we did not have time to visit any other place we had planned earlier. But none of us had any regrets about it because we had had our share of fun. It had also started getting colder and Preksha seemed so tired because of the cold.... so we decided to return. We got into the bus saying bye to Little World but my hubby and me had decided that we will go back there in another week's time to see the autumn colours in its full swing. I had earlier read a bad review about Little world on the net and I am planning to post a counter review soon. If any of you ever happen to visit Inuyama, Little World is a place to visit for sure.