This family-friendly destination, located in suburban Tachikawa, is devoted to the important (for all ages!) concept of play. Sitting just outside the vast Showa Kinen Park, it comprises an art museum focused on the expression of ‘play’, together with a one-of-a-kind indoor play area named Play Park. You’ll also find a smaller, similarly play-focused café and shop on the premises.
Play Museum (stylised as 'Play! Museum') holds four themed special shows each year, in which exhibits encompassing storybooks, anime, manga, poetry, installations and more come together to captivate children and adults alike. Previous events have included exhibitions celebrating perennial favourites Miffy, Winnie the Pooh, and ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ creator Eric Carle.
Play Park, meanwhile, is an indoor playground where kids are encouraged to think for themselves through encounters with the new and unknown. In place of the play apparatuses typically found in parks, an assortment of architects and other creatives have developed highly original play equipment, in which the method of play is not immediately obvious. Instead, youngsters get to enjoy working this out for themselves. Play Park also features zones where children and parents/carers can play together.