Before I start : for Dino and Godzilla lovers in Tokyo, did you know that the Hotel Grocery Hotel in Shinjuku has a Godzilla themed room now?
The room has a Godzilla statue and a giant Godzilla hand looks like it is coming through the wall !
I still have quite a few dinosaur type places to try but today we found another so I’m starting a post with a collection of where we are up to so far.
This first park is a small park just on the outskirts of Sogo Recreation Park (google sometimes calls it the ‘Total Recreation Park’ in an area called the “Kodomo no Hiroba.”(kid’s space) It is not far from the highway so isn’t exactly a quiet location but it is incredibly well kept with lots of flowers, public restrooms, a water fountain and lots of shade. The swings and slides are very low so perfect for toddlers and the big dinosaur and other monuments are perfect for older kids who like to climb and jump etc.
Take sand toys if your little one wants to play in the sand. There is also a vending machine in the middle of the park if you run out of drinks.
There isn’t a change table but I saw two parents do a quick nappy change in the stroller.
The park is 5 minutes walk from Tokyo Metro station “Nishikasai.” Travel time from Tokyo Station is approx 22 minutes.
If you’re looking for somewhere to eat afterwards, there is a very simple diner-style Mexican place across the road. They do lunches and dinners (and have a kids menu.) It’s called El Torito.
I spotted a Jonathan’s Pancakes from the park too and a gyoza shop that was doing a roaring (get it?) trade just down one of the little streets near the slide end of the park (walk along with the park on your left and just before the end of the park turn right – you’ll see all of their colourful lanterns.
KODOMO NO HIROBA, SOGO RECREATION PARK
6-11 NISHIKASAI, EDOGAWA
Then, there is Dinosaur Park (Kodomo no Mori) which is slightly closer (5 mins walk from Shin-Banba Station) to the city. (18 minutes travel time from Tokyo Station.) It’s quite small but my kids absolutely love coming here and then it’s always hard to get them to leave (!!)
There are public restrooms but no change table. There are vending machines for drinks.
3-10-3 KITA-SHINAGAWA, SHINAGAWA-KU
品川区北品川3-10-3
Don’t go especially but… if you’re already shopping in Aqua City in Odaiba; Toys’R’Us, Aqua City is located on the ground floor. At the far end of the store is a Thomas the Tank Engine display and train table for children to play with. There is also a moving, roaring, large dinosaur placed on top of a toy display. These are both located close to the baby feeding & changing room so if you have two children (and two adults) one child could play while the other was being fed and changed.
Near the exit is another small duplo play area too.
If you’re looking to shop, the Japanese store does have different merchandise to its overseas counterparts so it’s worth a look around.
This is also a good place to pick up some snacks and/or baby food.
TOYS R US ODAIBA
GROUND FLOOR, AQUA CITY DEPARTMENT STORE, 1-7-1 DAIBA, MINATO
港区台場1-7-1
OPEN 11AM-9PM
Another idea for during the day (even first thing in the morning) or night is to go and see the Giant Godzilla in Shinjuku. He can be seen from the intersection with the Don Quijote Shinjuku East Exit Head Office Store on the corner. The statue is well lit at night too.
This intersection is 9 minutes walk from the JR Shinjuku Station South Entrance.
DON QUIJOTE SHINJUKU EAST EXIT HEAD OFFICE STORE
新宿区歌舞伎町1-16-15
1-16-5 KABUKICHO, SHINJUKU
… and, did you know that it is possible to go up right next to Godzilla’s head?
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TOP DECK TO SEE GODZILLA’S HEAD IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR RENNOVATIONS
Technically, you need to be a guest of the hotel or using the restaurant to go and see the Godzilla Head on the 8th floor… however… if questioned, just stop for a coffee on the way out perhaps?
No-one asked us a thing… so we just wandered in and out.
HOTEL GRACERY SHINJUKU
新宿区歌舞伎町1-19-1
1-19-1 KABUKI-CHO, SHINJUKU
WEBSITE
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TOP DECK TO SEE GODZILLA’S HEAD IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR RENNOVATIONS
If you don’t mind a day trip: The Godzilla Slide at Kurihama Flower World a is retro Japan slice of delight. Although it is quite a distance from the centre of Tokyo (70 mins on the train and then a 15 minute walk or a few mins in a taxi from Kurihama Station), it is a full day event. The park has the godzilla slide, a gigantic playground including a gigantic roller slide, a children’s train (flower train) to ride around the park and beautiful fields of flowers (of course, colours and varieties vary with each season.)
The Godzilla Slide is located in a section of the park called “Bouken Land” (Adventure Land). There are lots of restrooms, change tables and places to buy snacks throughout the park.
I’ve written a whole new (and much more detailed) post on this park. See here.
**The Godzilla Park playground has been replaced and is now nicer than ever before ( Summer 2020!)
KURIHAMA FLOWER WORLD
1-BANCHI SHINMEICHO, YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA
神奈川県横須賀市神明町1番地
OPEN EVERYDAY.
*ADVENTURE LAND : 10AM-6PM
*HERB GARDEN : 9AM-5PM (CLOSED MONDAYS)
*HOT SPRING “POOL” FOR FEET :10AM-4PM (CLOSED MONDAYS)
*PARK GOLF COURSE: 9AM-5PM (CLOSED MONDAYS AND TUESDAYS IF MONDAY WAS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY) CHECK AT COURSE OFFICE FOR PRICES. NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER 5
*ARCHERY & AIR-RIFLE FACILITIES: 8:30AM-8:00PM (UNTIL 5PM IN WINTER, CLOSED MONDAYS)
ADMISSION TO THE PARK IS FREE ( FLOWER TRAIN IS 210 YEN PER ADULTS & 100YEN FOR CHILDREN)
WEBSITE (JAPANESE ONLY)
See HERE for my other favourite retro Tokyo Playgrounds.
It’s further out of town but a friend recommended the Ibaraki Nature Museum and she was right – it was such a cool (and inexpensive) day out.
It’s definitely designed with young people in mind as almost every exhibit moves or is touchable and/or interactive.
For a change, it was lovely to visit a museum and adjoining gardens that hadn’t gone for a cheesy option (no dinosaur shaped ice-creams or kids trains chugging around the park). I got the sense that this facility is built with education and preservation in mind.
I love the museum’s large building. It has high ceilings and large windows showing all the greenery of the museum’s surrounding gardens. You can really tell that you are out of the city.
There are arrows clearly marked throughout the whole museum with the suggested route which made it really easy for my kiddies to keep moving without missing anything.
The highlight was, without a doubt, the moving and roaring dinosaur exhibit. This only started up in March 2017.
The special bug exhibit is now on and finishes September 18th, 2017. It’s creepy-crawly heaven.
My only criticism is, although their English website and museum pamphlet are in English, the actual exhibit descriptions are all in Japanese so if you’re children are of a literate age this might be a bit frustrating ( or you might be giving your google translate a severe workout!)
There are breastfeeding spaces, change tables and water fountains all throughout the museum.
I recommend taking your own lunch and snacks as the museum cafeteria (tonkatsu, noodle dishes, pancakes etc.) had a long line – and that was on a weekday.
After the museum, you can start exploring the gardens out the back. Just near the garden entrance is a visual key with a set of pictures of the kinds of bugs and flowers to keep an eye out for.
The Bamboo Grass Forest was also small but very picturesque.
It was 37 degrees when we visited so we decided to make a beeline for the mizunohiroba 水の広場 (in the English pamphlet it is referred to as the “Water Square”)
I did enjoy how casual this area it was. I had brought towels and swimwear (and mosquito repellent – thank goodness!) and kiddies were all just changing out of clothes to swimwear at the seats next to the man-made brook. If you live here you’ll know that this informal set up is definitely not the ‘norm.’
The photos make it look like the kids are sliding but actually it was more like a flat slide and they had to worm their way down the hill. It was very, very clean and all felt very safe. There was lots and lots of shade.
My only regret was only taking my single stroller as it was a very, very, very hot 10 minute walk to get to the water area – a bit much to ask of my 4 year old (and of me! I wanted to jump in that water too!)
If you decide to go by car, it took us a little over 1 hour from Tokyo. Be sure to stop off at the Moriya Service Area off the highway on the way back to Tokyo for a rest, and a soft play area play if your kids are wriggly and a drink from the giant Hello Kitty vending machine.
If you travel by public transport: take a train to Moriya and then a Kanto Tetsudo Bus to Shizen Hakubutsukan Iriguchi – then walk for 5 minutes. (The website has some other public transport options too.
IBARAKI NATURE MUSEUM
茨城県坂東市大崎700
700 OSAKI, BANDO, IBARAKI PREFECTURE
OPEN: 9:30AM-5PM
CLOSED: MONDAYS (TUESDAYS IF MONDAY IS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY *the calendar on their English website is very comprehensive so just take a look before heading out.
ADMISSION: ADULTS 740 YEN, HIGH SCHOOL & UNI STUDENTS 430 YEN, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS 150 YEN *prices are even cheaper if you decide to skip the museum and go straight for the outdoor facilities
WEBSITE
I popped into the Henn na Hotel (out towards Disneyland) with my eldest and didn’t really know what to expect. A hotel with dinosaurs at the reception desk? I was even more surprised when we arrived – it’s in the middle of suburbia. A few convenience stores, a highway and lots of housing. There are no “Dinosaurs in HERE!” type signs. It looks like a boring, old business hotel.
The manager on duty said that 90% of their occupying guests are there for Disneyland and DisneySea – the hotel is substantially cheaper than staying at one of the Disney Resort hotels and a bus takes you to Disneyland and back.
I’m so glad we visited – even though we didn’t stay (a bit cheeky, I know! But it was so cool and my little girl didn’t want to leave the lobby at all!) It’s just a novel idea!
The hotel itself is VERY basic. The guest rooms aren’t themed and are quite small and simple ( another reason why it’s just cool to visit for visiting sake!) The hotel only opened in March 2017 so it’s all so clean and new though.
It’s so simple that there is only breakfast offered until 9:30am – a cheap buffet in a semi-dino themed breakfast restaurant. There is a hot food vending machine for other snacks. Actually, it is so hands off that there is a list of numbers stuck to the reception counter saying ” Call these numbers to call your own taxi.” But ..megghhh…I guess that all keeps costs down and makes for cheaper room rates right?
Henn na Hotel actually translates to “The Strange Hotel” and …well…. yep. Pretty much.
The lobby is the best bit. Two giant dinosaurs roaring at you, some robot fish and two dinos ‘manning’ the desk (actual check in is on a screen nearby. )
There were also a few dinosaur toys out for kids to play with.
This would be a fantastic affordable option for a disney trip if you’d rather start the day close by. I think kids would be more excited than adults by this place (although they might be more excited if they were to do a price comparison to their local competition!)
Or…if you’re already in Tokyo – I highly recommend taking your kids in for a look! So much detail has gone into this lobby. It’s great for a laugh in a fake prehistoric jungle.
*There is another Henn Na Hotel in Ginza but I haven’t visited yet and, I’m told, that it’s managed by a different company so I’ll need to go and find out if they also have dinosaurs and/or robots in the lobby.
HENN NA HOTEL
千葉県浦安市富士見5-3-20
5-3-20 FUJIMI, URAYASU, CHIBA
WEBSITE
