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puny parks

All too often, people complain about the puny parks that can be found the length and breadth of Japan.

Detractors can often be heard making snide remarks about these playgrounds of fun. "Oooh, it looks so grey," or "Kids will get depressed there," or even "It looks like a piece of shit."

But what has to be kept in mind is that Japan has more playgrounds per square kilometre than any other country on the planet. This is because they like to utilise every little scrap of land solely for the development and enjoyment of the little ones.

A piece of wasteland? Put a slide on it. A square metre of mud next to a highway? Perfect for a roundabout. Some blades of grass jammed between a factory and an electricity sub-station? Lay some concrete and build some swings on it.

The parks may be puny, but they are also proud. Proud to be puny.


An almost pointless park.



Hours of fun will probably not be had here.


Osaka is also home to the country's puniest park....




But there's no getting away from it. The parks aren't just puny. Some are just plain depressing.....



....and even a little neglected....




....while others contain stolen artefacts from Pacific islands....


The inhabitants of Easter Island had been wondering where the missing statue was. Now the truth is out.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 10:29 am. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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On Monday, 30 June, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

*Sigh* Back in my day we'd ride Horses and Zebras on a spring. Talk about confuse the little ones; there's probably a whole generation of Japanese that periodically flick through the sports channels trying to find racing Koalas.

And yes, I know my first sentence sounded dodgy.  



On Monday, 30 June, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Is that giraffe sick? Too depressed at being in such a grey an punt park?  



On Monday, 30 June, 2008, Blogger Musa Ni said:

The parks seem depressing when viewed through my adult eyes. When viewed through my very old kid eyes, those puny parks are great! I mean, I was the kind of kid that was just as happy playing with a clod of dirt as I was playing with an expensive toy. A bit of park space is a precious thing, no matter how tiny.  



On Tuesday, 01 July, 2008, Blogger owenandbenjamin said:

That 5th picture looks like a missle silo.  



On Tuesday, 01 July, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

they got the resources for these puny parks. andi agree, some are just depressing and forgotten-like.  



On Thursday, 03 July, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

There are some decent parks in Japan too, even if I must admit most of them are a little bit run-down. However, the river beds usually have a lot of greenery.

One good advice is also to head to the mountains, which are close from any Japanese city.  



On Friday, 04 July, 2008, Blogger William said:

I've never even seen a park in this country.

That's depressing.  



On Thursday, 21 August, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

What's great about the dust-bowl parks is that they're marked on maps in bright green. We were fooled many times.  



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