Oizumi Central Park

I have taken it upon myself to seek out and let my son play at as many of the 688 "kids play areas" in Nerima Ward as possible.  It sounds like a fun mission that I would have loved as a kid.  Sometimes these play areas are just a single metal slide in a little patch of dirt, but other times they are super creative and fun.  We loved going to octopus park and banana park and so many others!  They might not be super huge, but they are memorable.

Our beloved Kodomo no Mori, or Nerima Children's Forest (which we've been to several times), also falls into this category.  Frankly, I should start a list or maybe just start marking them on a map!

At any rate, after getting a recommendation from a friend, my son and I rode my bike to Oizumi Central Park.  For some reason, Google sent me in a very convoluted way.  It took us around 30 minutes to get from home to the fairly large park. 

Once there, I rode on the paths around the park.  I looked at the maps, but they were not very helpful and did not indicate a play area.  We didn't mind the ride, but it would have been nice to go directly to the play structure since we had already ridden awhile to get there.  Whenever we are on the bike for longer than 30 or so minutes, my son often complains that his bum hurts.  So, I try make our journeys as direct as possible.

We finally found the area my friend had mentioned tucked into the northern part of the park.  It isn't visible on Google Maps because it is under a canvas of trees!  But there was a selection of 5 athletic type challenges for young kids.  My son unbuckled from his bike seat, and quickly scaled the tall climbing tower.  He then traversed the balance beam, scrambled over the parallel bars, dashed through the log tube, and swung across the monkey bars.  He needed some help getting up to the monkey bars, as they were just out of his reach.

After completing the course in record time, he was ready for more.  He was a bit disappointed there wasn't more, as was I.  Although Nerima is filled with so many play places, we have yet to find a true athletic park.  Every one of those that we have explored has been over an hour and a half away from our house!  Maybe someday, we will find one locally.

We sat on a park bench for a short time and ate our lunch of onigiri (rice balls), pickled eggs, vegetable sticks with hummus, and cashews, while deciding what to do next. 

He noticed a Piyo-Piyo sign hanging by the tiny "little kid area" and asked if he could check it out.  Thinking that Piyo-Piyo was just for pre-kindergarten kids, I hesitantly agreed.  Sometimes it is better to hear no from the staff than from mom.  But, they quickly told him he was welcome to play.  One of the Nerima Children's Forest staff was working there and recognized my son. 

Soon my son was digging in the large sand pit, creating rivers and lakes and a mountain.  There was even a tunnel or two.  He was thrilled to introduce water into his infrastructure.  Before I knew it, he was barefoot and sandy bottomed and happy as a clam.

At that moment it didn't matter that the athletic course wasn't robust.  All that mattered was that my kid had a great day and we saw a bit more of Nerima.