But it's already January 8th. My New Year greetings are so late. I couldn't even clean the house during the New Year holidays, I was so busy. Even after the new year, I was posting flyers on my mamachari bicycle for the sale. After two days of great success, the New Year sale is over!! So, feeling a little bit of a sense of accomplishment, I'm finally going back to my wife's parents' house this year.
Here we are in Okinawa!!
It's been a while since I last visited Okinawa. On the second day, I visited a client's nursery school and then drove two hours to Kunigami Village, where you'll find the Yanbaru Forest Toy Museum , which is overseen by the Tokyo Toy Museum.
On this day, Okinawa had a strong wind and the sea was quite rough. If we used the highway, it would take 2 hours, but we decided to make lots of detours. By choosing the right route, we arrived in about 4 hours!
The detours are mostly just for eating. The usual course is to eat Okinawa soba noodles with lots of asa (seaweed) as you make your way along the way.
Just after getting off the Kyoda IC, there is a roadside station called Kyoda. It has a wide selection of delicious food.
Then we went to the Yanbaru Toy Museum in Kunigami Village.
As we climbed up the mountain, we saw a single-story building. "Oh, this is it!!" It felt like we'd come all the way from Kochi, and we were already satisfied even before we entered.
Since it was a weekday, the only customers were myself and two other families.
The shop is almost completely private. The toys are made by local Okinawan artists, wooden art, and other standard toys are neatly lined up on the shelves.
A huge wooden ball pool. An adult can easily fit in it even when lying down. The surface is very smooth, probably because it's been painted. It feels great to the touch.
This one has magnets on the back of the wood so you can make any shape you want and have fun with it. This is fun for adults too.
The reason why I came to Kunigami Village in the first place was because I wanted to see a real wooden playground before the Kobe Playroom opens on January 11th. I was looking around hoping to find some hints.
Also, it helped me to resolve the questions that had been bothering me about Kunigami Village, the northernmost village in Okinawa, such as "how do they attract customers?" and "what is the appeal of this village?"
The museum is simple, with a reception desk and a one-floor play area inside. I wonder what wood the floor is made of? It's dark red and smooth, like teak. It's not as soft as cedar or cypress, but it's really smooth and feels good. It's easy to slide around on. Maybe it's pine, since it's Okinawa?
The slope on the left side of the photo can be used as a slide, so kids can have a lot of fun sliding down it. The combination of white walls and dark wood gives it a cool look.
And what I felt was the best was being outside, although the inside was nice too. The entire large site was surrounded by greenery and it felt really good. (Okinawa doesn't have autumn leaves, so even in January there's a lot of greenery and it feels good.) Incidentally, today's temperature was 22 degrees. This is the temperature during the coldest time of the year, so it's nice☆
Although there aren't as many people as in Tokyo or Osaka, one of Kunigami Village's charms is that it has facilities where you can touch local wood and play with toys.
The site also had a campground and a green space, giving it the impression of being a natural complex. It remains a very charming place.
We would like to create a place like this in a room at our Mitoyo Toy Factory in Kagawa Prefecture... And now we have another goal.
Well, this weekend is finally the new initiative of Nakayoshi Library. [ Wood-based playroom] It is OPEN. I will be heading back to Kobe tomorrow =3=3 Now, let's get ready!!
The museum and the letters overlap...