Indoor playgrounds in Japan
January 23rd, 2009 by James
Parents worried about the safety of parks can take their kids to this indoor play center:
All the playground equipment been sanitized to protect children from scary things like insects (germs from other children are another matter). It would cost a family of four about 2400 yen to play for an hour at the indoor play center shown in the video. Business is booming for the operators of the play center, and in just a few years they have expanded from 2 locations and 180,000 customers (2006) to 8 locations and 600,000 customers (2008).
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Is this really any different from the Discovery Zone and those type places that were in the US?
Maybe the press is spinning this as a place to play without worry about accidents or germs, but I’m pretty sure that has jack shit to do with why parents *actually* go. I’ve taken my son, as have some of my friends, and when hearing people praise the place, none of us have said anything about accidents or germs. We go because:
You can play in the middle of winter or summer without freezing or frying.
You can play even when it’s raining, which is great for the rainy season.
In addition to park playstuff, like sandboxes, they also have ball pits, tricycle race courses, play kitchens with play food, blocks, picture books, foam obstacle courses, and a big bouncy-room (the inflated things you can jump around in) with no time limit.
I’m sure this is just a matter of someone deciding to spin the 衛生、事故 angle into a news story, and interviewing parents there until they hit someone who said something that matched their predecided new angle.
Also, the price they report is odd. I’m pretty sure we played there for a whole day for something like 1500 yen
Man, you must have had fun all day in that bouncy-room.
There are many similar like this around, oldest one is probably ‘Kodomo no Shiro’ (Kid’s Castle) in Shibuya . This one also has some outdoor activities on the roof, which are obviously closed during rain.
Difference is that Bornelund’s Kid-o-kid is much more upscale, and equipment and atmosphere is much newer/cleaner. But Kid’s castle is just Y 500/300 for the whole day.
A similar one would be ‘Omocha Okoku’ at Tokyo Dome.
Luxury ! We used to take our kid to the beautiful and well equipped playgrounds under concrete highway overpasses.
Luxury! My parents used to throw me and my ten brothers and sisters out of the car onto the highway median with nought but bucket and one shovel to play with. And we were lucky: we had a car. Most kids had to weave and dodge through the traffic to get onto that highway median!
Ha. that’s completely crazy
gee.. the indoor playgrounds over here are way cooler! and less expensive (i think).
If “over here” means America, then, yeah, probably so. The general rule of thumb is that stuff in America is way cooler and less expensive.