The Tsukushino course in Yokohama is one of my favorite places in Japan. The playground is just so awesome I haven't seen any that are come close to being so fun.
First off, it is set in the woods. Right out front is a busy road but somehow you go through the building and it feels like you are in a different area altogether.
On top of that the play equipment is so fun. Never in my life have I seen a freefall slide, and they have two. It is crazy scary to push yourself over the edge onto nothing and just hope the slide will be there to catch you.
We went with friends who have a costco membership so we headed there once finished at the park. I haven't been in about two years.
Calista and Beatrix were loving the cart with two seats up front. We are lucky to get one child seat at the Japanese grocery store sot his was really exciting. I think I loved it more then they did. There are some things I really miss about America. Places in Japan are not designed for families with six kids.
It was fun to walk around and buy everything I miss, like the chocolate muffins.
Of course we got pizza and hot dogs at the end. It was a great day.
Penelope's request for her birthday was to go to the Godzilla at Kurihama Flower park. The flowers were in bloom and it was beautiful. I'm pretty sure her birthday lands on a Japanese holiday because we were there at 9am on a Tuesday morning and it was more crowded then when we usually go on a Saturday. When we were leaving there was a line of cars waiting for a space in the lot.
This park has a beautiful pathway of flowers leading up to the playground. We mostly speed on past but checked out the flowers on our way back down.
Beatrix was fearless walking on net pathways. Her feet could have easily slipped right through them and not only was she not even looking at her feet she didn't want me to touch her either. I was trying to have one hand on her in case she slipped but she wouldn't have it. I'm not surprised, she is the only one of my kids who doesn't like to hold hands. Now some are growing out of hand holding, but they all used to love it at her age.
Tucker said he was going to sleep so Calista promptly laid down next to him. Then he kept laughing and opening his eyes when he saw I was going to take a picture.
Penelope was so busy running around I barely got any pictures of her.
Can yo spot Tucker and Leon fighting in the background? The pretty much wrestle around all the time. It is funny how much they do it and the girls just don't. Boys and girls just like to play differently sometimes.
I love that we could just drop everything and go to the park. Now that the kids are back in school it won't be so easy.
Bob's week off work coincided with beautiful weather so we got to have some fun in our neighborhood.
I love our neighborhood and their parks. We live like 5 or 6 depending which ones you are counting as in our neighborhood but all are close enough for the kids to walk to. None of them have fancy toys, but they do have space to run around and to be imaginative. They also have friends. We don't have big yards to play in so all the kids go to the park and you see the same kids everyday and make friends that way.
This next one has been deemed unsafe. I hope they build something new, but if not the kids still like to go to the park regardless of the toy set.
I just love how the kids get to run around and climb trees and no one bats and eye or looks at me weird for letting my children climb.
There was a new sign put up so I used my handy google translate on my phone to try to read it. It can be fun to try to interpret google translate. I can usually get the idea even though it isn't usually dead on for meaning.
Tucker made a birthday cake for his friend Bryce and gave it to him outside.
Tucker also has been mowing the neighbors lawn whiles she is away for the summer.
But that was last week. This week it is cloudy and Bob is working. I do let the older kids still play outside during the day but I don't get out as much because there is usually a baby that needs watching and a dinner that needs to be made.
The kids needed some more bamboo for building teepee and such in the backyard so we headed to one of our favorite parks.
I have a picture like this of the kids just weeks after we arrived in Japan and wanted to recreate it.
This playground is a long line of obstacles that we like to race and time each other on. I was pretty proud of myself for getting it done in 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Not bad considering Bob got it in 2:20 and Tucker and 2:18 on their first try. They were able to beat me on their second attempts. Penelope was amazing and the the winner of both tries with a time of 1:52.
Leon and Scarlett participated as well and both beat my first time which was 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Scarlett was pretty particular about making sure that no one knew her time. I felt bad for her. She thought she would be the slowest and was worried about people making fun of her. She was telling me about how she wishes she was faster. I tried to tell her that it really didn't matter who was the slowest but it is hard for kids to understand that.
Japan has the coolest parks! They really don't seem to care about safety at all at their parks. I'm surprised I haven't seen a child seriously injured at a park yet. Because they aren't worried about getting sued by someone whose child got hurt they can make really fun and scary parks.
We found a new favorite park! It is called Tskushino Course in Yokohama. This place was so awesome! I already want to go back. For those looking to go I recommend just driving it. The tolls weren't bad and we were able to park right in front for free. Riding the trains there would have been more expensive for our family and more than twice as long. Here is the google link https://www.google.com/maps/place/Field+Athletics+Yokohama+Tsukushino+course/@35.5207,139.4844393,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x1ed7eaa80ffdfc55!8m2!3d35.5207!4d139.486628?hl=en
This place had over 50 obstacles for everyone to run wild and enjoy.
We probably spent the most time in the water area.
These were no joke. I saw a few kids fall in the water. I did not try this one Tucker is on.
This next was was seriously hard. About half way through the girls wanted to quit but there was a line behind them so I unsympathetically told them they had to keep going or jump in. They decided to finish. It wasn't like I could go out there and help them. I later went out and tried it and I instantly felt bad. It was really tough. Like tough mudder tough. I also wanted to quit, but I couldn't the logs were wiggly and moved all around, plus when you went to step on a new log the one you were on would push back.
This slide might just be the craziest thing I've seen in Japan yet. It is literally straight down. you have to push yourself off the edge onto nothing. It looks like no bid deal, but the moment you are sitting at the top it feels really hard to push off over the edge into midair. It goes against every instinct. The slide "catches" you in about five feet.
There is nothing like watching a two-year-old do something again and again with no fear that is really scary to every adult around.
