Comments on: Indoor playgrounds in Japan

By: randomcommenter

randomcommenter — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:42:15 +0000

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.

By: Intricate

Intricate — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:23:51 +0000

gee.. the indoor playgrounds over here are way cooler! and less expensive (i think).

By: Timothy

Timothy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:27:36 +0000

Ha. that’s completely crazy

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:41:29 +0000

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!

By: kabocha

kabocha — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:38:14 +0000

Man, you must have had fun all day in that bouncy-room.

By: Bruce Smith

Bruce Smith — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:57:19 +0000

Luxury ! We used to take our kid to the beautiful and well equipped playgrounds under concrete highway overpasses.

By: tokyob

tokyob — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:50:18 +0000

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.

By: randomcommenter

randomcommenter — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:37:35 +0000

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

By: nate

nate — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:16:21 +0000

Is this really any different from the Discovery Zone and those type places that were in the US?