Kodomo No Kuni

Why it took me almost three years to get back to one of my favorite parks in Japan, I have no idea.  I'm sure glad I made time to go back.  

Kodono No Kuni is a huge park for Japan.  There are several separate playgrounds and even a water area.  You could spend days exploring this place.

According to a friends fitbit, we walked about four miles just going in between play areas.  I had no idea.  But it seemed about right because when it was time to walk back to the car our feet were all aching.  I literally went home and threw my shoes away.  My feet were hurting and I think the shoes were partially to blame.

The day we went was cloudy and borderline raining the whole time. But it was extremely humid!  Like one of the worst days.  We were all drenched in sweat and it wasn't even sunny.

I thought this next sign was funny.  To me it looked like a sign to watch out for child snatchers.  With the help of google translate I figured it is an "emergency exit."  The fence is about three inches lower in that exact spot.  The whole fence would have been easy to step over for any adult.

At one point I couldn't find Beatrix.  It was scary.  They whole thing only lasted for like two minutes.  We were all in this play area near the maze playing tag.  When the round ended I looked around and didn't see her.  I thought she must have toddled over to the maze.  But after a minute of no one finding her I started to get worried.  She ended up just being a couple feet away from where we all thought she was, at same exact area we were all running around.  But she was inside the end of a tunnel slide.  We must have overlooked it several times.  A Japanese man helped her get out.  I'll have to remember from now on that while scanning a play area for lost kids, look inside the tunnel slide.

 This place has a pretty decent roller slide.

 There was a bit of a queue so we were all hanging out at the top for several minutes. 

 This is the only roller slide I know of that has pictures on it.

 The kids all hanging out at the bowl slide having a breather.

The unattended rafts.  This area was a bit of a challenge for me because Beatrix and Calista were desperately trying to get really close to the water and peer in.  Then they wanted to put the bamboo sticks in like the big girls were doing.  I was just nonstop waiting for someone to fall in the water.

 This place even has animals!

I'm really glad we went because just a week after the base deemed this area "Out of our liberty zone."  They are being really strict with the covid stuff.  I'm hoping to go back again in the fall.