Hello,
Are there any parks in Tokyo with big grass area (not dirt)?
Thanks!

Kinuta park has got some nice grassy areas. It gets a bit run down, but it's one of the only ones I know of with grass. It's unfortunate that there are few parks with grass in Japan in general. I often wonder where people picnic.

Try park next to the new OOedo Onsen at Telecom Center (Yurikamome line out of Shimbashi) Odaiba. My 2 years old son enjoyed very much running up and rolling down on the grass hill there.

Another is about 2 hours from Tokyo. My son and I really enjoyed very much playing on big grass hill inside Mother Farm Chiba. I'll certainly go there again.

Note from Admin: Odaiba Kaihin Koen and Shiokaze Park are adjacent parks along the waterfront in Odaiba (Bi-lingual Atlas page 66, C5-6)
The Maritime museum is located in Shiokaze Park and also a block further down across the street is the Emerging Sciences Museum with nifty hands-on stuff (http://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp) which has been posted about at: http://www.tokyowithkids.com/discussions/messages/8/157.html

You can also try Hikarigaoka Park, off of the Oedo subway line (last stop). The playgrounds themselves have dirt ground, but there are several grassy areas there where children can run around. Great place to take dogs, too.

Note from Admin: Bi-lingual Atlas page 47, G1 Nerima-ku

Kiba Park (no entrance fee) has the wild and wooly obstacle course:
tokyowithkids.com/entertainment/municipalparks/kibashinsuipark.html

The Botanical Garden sort of between Myogadani Station (Marounouchi line) and Hakusan Station (Mita line) in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, is very nice, though it is more wooded than grassy. Small entrance fee.

Yoyogi Park at Harajuku of course has lots of grass!

If you live out in Edogawa-ku or on the Shinjuku or Tozai lines, then you absolutely must go to Ponyland along the riverside (includes lots of grass)! Actually they have two ponylands, one is a long walk or a bus ride from Shinozaki station on the Toei Shinjuku line (H2 on page 61 of the 2001 edition of Kodansha's bi-lingual atlas). The other one is further south, and not marked in the bi-lingual atlas, in Nagisa Park (E3 on page 69). Nagisa Park is cool because it stretches out since actually there are about 4 adjacent parks all connected by foot bridges and even a golfcart type of shinkansen train (small charge) and choochoo train. There are also BBQ areas but you have to reserve in advance. The pony rides are free but the hours are limited and they are sometimes cancelled due to weather, even once due to heavy wind!

All the above parks have grass, and are still inside Tokyo. There's a conversation about petting zoos at:

http://www.tokyowithkids.com/discussions/messages/8/67.html

I have a pile of photos of Kinuta Green Park (that's Setagaya-ku, page 63, EF5) but haven't gotten around for making a page for that park yet.

My favorite park, Shinjuku Gyoen, will have grass galore once the season is right for grass to grow (in winter, most parks are covered in something akin to shedding deer pelts).
Access the park from Sendagaya Station on the JR, or Shinjuku Gyoen Mae on the Marunouchi Line. There's a small fee (200 yen for adults, 50 for kids, free for preschool & handicap), but the pristine, 144 acres is well worth it. There's a carp pond, lots of different kinds of landscaping, and even a tropical hothouse which is nice during the winter. It's a truly grand picnic place, so weekends it gets a little crowded.
Still, a relatively clean, green gem.

Shinjuku Gyoen is truly a beautiful spot and is my favourite park. The kids love to run barefoot on the grass. The park is also an enjoyable place for picnics.
As a word of caution, however, the crows there can be quite aggressive. I visit the park frequently and have seen crows swoop down in the middle of groups of people and take food right off the spread-out picnic sheets. It happens in a split second. As long as you keep an eye on the crows and do not leave your food completely ungaurded, there is unlikley to be a problem. However, I would not let small children holding large pieces of food to stray too far away from the group because I think this would be too tempting for a crow. I have seen crows swoop down to within one metre of such children and each time I hold my breath. Just use a bit of caution and common sense and there is unlikley to ever be a problem.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll watch out for those crows at Shinjuku Gyoen.

Here is a website in English called Tokyo Metropolitan Parks Guide:
http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/
the one we like for dog running is:
http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park_detail2.html

APRIL 10TH - HANAMI
Sunday Afternoon, Shinjuku Gyoen. 1-5pm

If you are looking for a relaxing Hanami under the Cherry Blossoms _without_
karaoke and drunks falling about, try Shinjuku Gyoen.

If you would like to join a group, here's our map: http://tinyurl.com/6pvvm - we'll be "HERE"

The park opens at 10AM, but most of us will be arriving around 1 or 2pm. During Hanami the park allows people to linger until 5pm, but you must enter by 4PM.

Directions:
Marunouchi Line: Shinjuku Gyoen-mae (2 min from stn) Take exit for "Shinjuku-mon" and turn right when you exit. You will see the park's
side entrance. Enter and turn right for Shinjuku-mon. Admission 200yen, Kids 50yen.

*** This park does not allow karaoke machines. And technically, alcohol is prohibited.

You should bring your on food/drinks if you need them, and something to sit on.
The weather forecast is merely cloudy for Sunday,
NO rain, so no damp muddy ground.

If you let us know you are coming, we will try to give you a contact place/time/number. nosmoketokyo@yahoo.com .
Or just look for the huge group. Last Saturday there were 50 people and no sakura. This Sunday the group will be larger.

What do the following names have in common?
Moon Shadow, Rio Samba, Gina Lollobrigida, White Christmas, Super Star, Tancho, Sahara, Kiara, Blue Light, Blue Waves, Golden Medaillon, Queen Elizabeth, Princes Michiko...
They are names of roses! And this is the rose season in Tokyo!

One great place to see roses is near Komagome at Kyu Furukawa Gardens. The only rose there that we saw named after a man was the "Charles de Gaule"!
Hurry! The peak of the rose season ends about mid-June here in Tokyo.

Some other places to enjoy roses are at:

Meguro: in the gardens of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum at the former residence of Prince Asaka, 7 minutes walk from east exit JR Yamanote, 6 minutes from Shirokanedai station. We've always liked this park because the kids are allowed to play around and climb on the sculptures. For architecture enthusiasts, the former residence is an Art Deco example.

Edogawa-ku: In one middle section of a long rambling group of parks called the Sogo Recreation Area (mentioned above as "Nagisa Park"), that stretches from near the Tozai line all the way to the Edogawa River (there is a boat-bus stop there). This area includes free pony rides during limited hours, a couple of very good playgrounds, barbecue areas, and water fountains, and a park tram painted to look like a train. A lot of detail plus a map is at http://www.city.edogawa.tokyo.jp/sec_jigyodan/sec_kouen/sourec.html in Japanese. A short version in English is at http://www.city.edogawa.tokyo.jp/english/parkfacilities3.html and it is not accurate, because there is no entrance fee, only a fee for riding the park tram. The fee listed there must be for the Fuji Park located within the total Sogo complex.

Arakawa-ku: A brief walk from Arakawa 7-chome station on the Toden Arakawa street car line over the waterworks bridge is Arakawa Shizen Park. This is also a great place for your budding young bicyclists to borrow a bicycle and learn traffic rules (free of charge).

Western Tokyo: A bus ride from Tsutsujigaoka Station, Chofu Station on the Keio Line or Mitaka Station, Kichijoji Station on the the JR, you will find Jindai Botanical Park.

Fuchu: In the middle of the Fuchu Raceourse there is a marvelous rose garden. If you decide to spend a day at the horse races (every Saturday and Sunday) then you can also enjoy beautiful roses by taking the walk-through tunnel to the inside of the race tracks. Keio line out of Shinjuku.


There are sure to be more beautiful rose gardens all over Japan. Please send in your local discoveries and share them with us!

P.S. Roses do well here in Tokyo in December also. If you don't have time to see them at peak season, they are still very enjoyable around Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Just a clarification of the excellent posting from Cornelia. Sogo Recreation Park is free. The charge mentioned on the ward office's website is for the park tram. Basically, the park stretches from Arakawa river to Edogawa river, if one includes the baseball and soccer fields. The tram route goes from the rose garden, which is situated at about the centre of the park, to Edogawa river, near the Ponyland facilities. The waterbus service was discontinued about four years ago, and there are no plans to restart it. The roses were in full bloom two weeks ago. Now is the perfect time to visit. And bring a picnic lunch. Aside from a Mister Donuts, a convenience store, and a family restaurant near the rose garden, the closest eateries are in Riverside Mall, which is a couple of blocks away from the pony riding area.

Hi everyone,

I have a question about places where one could get together, as in many (about 5 - 6, say) families could get together,, have a picnic and kids could run around and maybe go for an outing in teh park, if tehy have a petting zoo, or some kiddie amusement like trains or stg.

Of course there are many parks in Tokyo and surroundinga areas, they all appear very nice from teh webpage, but I guess, word of mouth is always teh best. It would be nice if the place had parking possibilities.

Amusenment Parks are nice, but we cant picninc in them. And soem of the large parks dont have parking spaces.

We went to Kodomo no Kuni and found it quite nice, very green and very big and cool. Only thing is taht even though it has a large parking space, the access road through the mountains is long, narrow and single, so if you go on nay holiday, it can be quite painful to reach it, although once you are parked, it is nice.

We have already been to the Tama Zoo, Ueno, Tobu Zoo.

I had heard that there is a park in central tokyo, with fountains and splash pools. But I completely forgot the names.

Ina ny case, I am looking for a nice open place, with parking available and some fun stuff for kids but not too many things to see as otehrwise we parents wont eb able to sit and talk.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanking you in advance....!

Since you mentioned parking, I assume that transport wouldn't be too much of a problem. So here are some possible meeting sites:
- Kasai-rinkai-koen (with the Tokyo Seaside Park aquarium, bird-watching park, beach, BBQ area, long walkways, and a Ferris wheel)
- Sogo recreation park (basically a series of parks from Arakawa river to Edogawa river)
- Gyosen park (with a petting zoo, fishing pond, and traditional Japanese garden)
- Kiba park and the nearby Kiba shinsui park
- Ojima athletic park (next to Higashi-ojima station: I think the park's name is "Ojima Komatsugawa Park")
- Mizumoto koen (large park near Kanamachi station)
- Shinozaki park (a fairly large park without much to recommend it except tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and a BBQ area)
All the parks are in eastern Tokyo, except for Mizumoto park which is at the northeastern edge of Tokyo.

That's just a quick brain dump. I'm eager to read suggestions from parents who have lived in Tokyo a while.

Inokashira park is nice, has a childrens zoo, Ghibli Museum (from the popular movies - Spirited Away etc), a creek for the kids to play in, a big lake with row boats and paddle boats to hire and usually has lots of buskers and magicians wandering around. Go to Kichijoji station on the Inokashira line, we drive there sometimes and park in one of the nearby parking areas.

Yoyogi Koen is also pretty easy for parking if you get there early, lots of fountains etc, big areas to picnic in. Its near Harajuku and Omotosando.

Try this website
http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park_detail1.html

Hope this helps, enjoy !

TOKYO: Fuchu Race course (Fuchu-honmachi station/JR Musashino line or Fuchu station/Keio line from Shinjuku station)

The Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby)
27 May 2007

The Tokyo Yushun, or Japanese Derby, is a fixed-weight race for three-year-olds at Tokyo Racecourse. It is one of the most popular races of the season. Just 30 minutes from central Tokyo, whole families go with the bentos and picnic sheets to enjoy a day at the races. General entry allows you to wander, check out the extensive grounds, including two playgrounds for kids, rose gardents, noodle shops or more upscale restaurants, and maybe even brave the betting ettiquette (all in Japanese and with vending machines of course as well as real people). There are also free pony rides twice during the day (a line and number deal of course).

There is nothing like the sound of 18 horses hammering down to the finish line. The ground rumbles beneath your feet. The second to the last race is THE RACE that everyone came to see, and it runs at about 14:25 ? or is it 15:25? In any case, get there at least by 12:00 because if the weather is good, it is possible for them to actually stop selling entrance tickets when they hit 100,000.

http://japanracing.jp/information/j0705.html
1st Place Prize Money 150,000,000(Yen)