Posted by Jess
12 September 2010
Yesterday we met a coworker, his wife and his kids (boys ages 3 and 1) at Yoyogi Park, which is a large park area about 2 km from our house. They have a large area in the back for kids to rent bikes and then ride around a loop area that's just for kids. Max (the older boy) and Ella had a blast chasing each other on their bikes through the park and then in the loop area. Ella rode her bike all the way up to the park while our friends drove there so I think Max had a slight energy advantage but Ella kept up pretty well! Abby just liked running around the loop and chasing the bikes.
The park was pretty quiet, but it was early on a Saturday morning. It's my first time to the park (Jason has run up there a few times) and says that at different times there's a lot of activities. We'll hopefully go back often now that it's slightly (ever so slightly) cooler.
Here is some information about Yoyogi Park (thanks to Wikipedia)
Yoyogi Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. During the post World War II occupation, it was the site of the Washington Heights residence for U.S. officers. It was later the site for the main Olympic athletes village of the 1964 Summer Olympics and the swimming, diving, and basketball venues. The distinctive Yoyogi National Gymnasium which hosted swimming, diving, and basketball was designed by Kenzo Tange for the Olympics, and is still in use, but most of the area north of the gymnasium complex and south of Meiji Shrine was turned into a city park in 1967.
Today, the park is a popular hangout, especially on Sundays, when it is used as a gathering place for people to play music, practice martial arts, etc. The park has a bike path, a public basketball court, and bicycle rentals are available. As a consequence of Japan's long recession, there are several large, but quiet and orderly, homeless camps around the park's periphery.
And a map, thanks to the Japan Recreation Board Website
We need to get back to check out the shrine a little more and for good people watching.
Here are some pictures from the morning:
After this we were all really tired from the outdoor fun and the legwork! Luckily our friends gave us a ride back to our house. After lunch (a very japanese lunch - grilled cheese and fruit), we took some naps and got ready for the afternoon.
A few weeks ago, Jason posted about the National Children's Castle (you can revisit that post here: August Post: National Children's Castle ). The castle is not too expensive - 500 Yen for adults, 300 Yen for E, A is free. The rooftop pools, which are gone now since summer is officially over here, are just one floor of this 7 floor funhouse. We decided to explore the Play Hall floor. This floor has a few sections - the first being an area for school-age children to play things like darts and ping-pong, the second being a smaller children's play mat area with places for pretend play, puppets, etc., and the third is the jungle gym area named Waku Waku Land. Waku Waku means exciting or to be thrilled in Japanese. Waku Waku Land is a large climbing area with slides and rope bridges for kids age 3 and up. Ella played hard in Waku Waku Land for over an hour and as she'll tell you - she got really sweaty! Abby played for a while but was bored after a while so we went off to explore the other floors (since it was my first time there). One observation I had was that the gaijin kids (foreigners/non-japanese) were rude while the japanese kids seemed to have their parents close by. One girl asked why Abby didn't talk and when I said she's just a baby and can't talk yet, the little girl said "I don't want her playing here by us". The second was when Abby and I were playing with a ring-toss game and a little kid just grabbed the rings out of my hands. Ahh, it felt like we were back in the US. Kids behaving badly with no parents around. Nice.
Abby and I found a floor that had a whole big area of battery operated trains and hundreds of pieces of track. So we sat down and played with a train for a little while. We also found a crafts area, a music room, and on the rooftop now are tricycles and a basketball/sports area.
A quick stop at the farmer's market and store on the way home - I wanted sweet corn so Jay picked some up at the market - it was $5 for 2 ears of corn. And when we got home, one of them was bad and we had to throw it out. Corn seems to be really expensive here - my theory is it's because of how much land it takes to grow corn and land is hard to get here, but I don't know. Anyway, I think that's the last time I'll get Jay to buy me corn at the farmer's market. Boo.
The girls were exhausted last night after such a busy day! After they went to bed, Jason and I spent an exciting Saturday evening playing Yahtzee and Cribbage :)
Kanpai!
Jess
12 September 2010
Yesterday we met a coworker, his wife and his kids (boys ages 3 and 1) at Yoyogi Park, which is a large park area about 2 km from our house. They have a large area in the back for kids to rent bikes and then ride around a loop area that's just for kids. Max (the older boy) and Ella had a blast chasing each other on their bikes through the park and then in the loop area. Ella rode her bike all the way up to the park while our friends drove there so I think Max had a slight energy advantage but Ella kept up pretty well! Abby just liked running around the loop and chasing the bikes.
The park was pretty quiet, but it was early on a Saturday morning. It's my first time to the park (Jason has run up there a few times) and says that at different times there's a lot of activities. We'll hopefully go back often now that it's slightly (ever so slightly) cooler.
Here is some information about Yoyogi Park (thanks to Wikipedia)
Yoyogi Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. During the post World War II occupation, it was the site of the Washington Heights residence for U.S. officers. It was later the site for the main Olympic athletes village of the 1964 Summer Olympics and the swimming, diving, and basketball venues. The distinctive Yoyogi National Gymnasium which hosted swimming, diving, and basketball was designed by Kenzo Tange for the Olympics, and is still in use, but most of the area north of the gymnasium complex and south of Meiji Shrine was turned into a city park in 1967.
Today, the park is a popular hangout, especially on Sundays, when it is used as a gathering place for people to play music, practice martial arts, etc. The park has a bike path, a public basketball court, and bicycle rentals are available. As a consequence of Japan's long recession, there are several large, but quiet and orderly, homeless camps around the park's periphery.
And a map, thanks to the Japan Recreation Board Website
We need to get back to check out the shrine a little more and for good people watching.
Here are some pictures from the morning:
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| Harajuku Station Entrance |
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| Entrance into Yoyogi Park |
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| Ella Riding Her Bike in the Children's Bike Area |
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| Future Track Star Abby Running Around the Bike Track |
A few weeks ago, Jason posted about the National Children's Castle (you can revisit that post here: August Post: National Children's Castle ). The castle is not too expensive - 500 Yen for adults, 300 Yen for E, A is free. The rooftop pools, which are gone now since summer is officially over here, are just one floor of this 7 floor funhouse. We decided to explore the Play Hall floor. This floor has a few sections - the first being an area for school-age children to play things like darts and ping-pong, the second being a smaller children's play mat area with places for pretend play, puppets, etc., and the third is the jungle gym area named Waku Waku Land. Waku Waku means exciting or to be thrilled in Japanese. Waku Waku Land is a large climbing area with slides and rope bridges for kids age 3 and up. Ella played hard in Waku Waku Land for over an hour and as she'll tell you - she got really sweaty! Abby played for a while but was bored after a while so we went off to explore the other floors (since it was my first time there). One observation I had was that the gaijin kids (foreigners/non-japanese) were rude while the japanese kids seemed to have their parents close by. One girl asked why Abby didn't talk and when I said she's just a baby and can't talk yet, the little girl said "I don't want her playing here by us". The second was when Abby and I were playing with a ring-toss game and a little kid just grabbed the rings out of my hands. Ahh, it felt like we were back in the US. Kids behaving badly with no parents around. Nice.
Abby and I found a floor that had a whole big area of battery operated trains and hundreds of pieces of track. So we sat down and played with a train for a little while. We also found a crafts area, a music room, and on the rooftop now are tricycles and a basketball/sports area.
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| Ella the engineer by the train area |
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| Abby's Play Areas, but all she wanted to do was go in Waku Waku Land! |
The girls were exhausted last night after such a busy day! After they went to bed, Jason and I spent an exciting Saturday evening playing Yahtzee and Cribbage :)
Kanpai!
Jess
8:05 PM |
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