Australia’s playgrounds have
gone soft. Rubber matting, plastic equipment, regulated heights and specified
rules; all in fear of a few bumps and the occasional broken arm. By removing
all potentially hazardous elements, we’ve also removed a child’s ability to let
their creativity and imagination run wild. With everything bolted down and
modernised, children are left with few opportunities to recreate imaginary
settings and scenarios by utilising a space designed for play.
Funnily enough, despite Japan’s
overly-cautious mentality relating to public safety, its parks are some of the
best I’ve stumbled upon in the world. Although they tend to look ghetto and
haunted, I think this just adds to their charm.
Majority of the playgrounds
are built on natural ground or a concrete surface and utilise the surrounding
nature. When I comment to Japanese friends that Australian playgrounds would
never have concrete or many of the metal, retractable components featured, I’d
receive the same response each time— ‘I suppose we think kids learn from their
mistakes’.
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| Standard playgrounds in Australia |
Below are some photos I’ve
taken whilst travelled in various parts of Japan. These parks are not a rarity
here and each time I’ve happened to stumble upon one, I’ve noticed a number of children
playing without adults in sight. Something else I find fascinating in Tokyo is
that children are encouraged to take public transport alone from around 6 years
of age. On a daily basis I see very small children dawdling home in their
school uniform and hopping on and off buses and trains. It’s believed that this
sort of independence is important to instill from a young age. It saddens me to
think that this is not really a possibility for Australian children which such
a high rate of kidnapping and molestation cases.
This playground in Setagaya
could be mistaken as an area for the homeless. The dodgily constructed huts are,
however, creations of local children. Visitors to this park are invited to use
wooden bits and pieces to build fortresses and mansions for imaginary families
to live in. Close by, children can run on the cloud-shaped ramp, shoot hoops,
race electric cars around a circuit and create a masterpiece on one of the
chalkboards.
Children can pretend to be a
salary man/woman by waiting at the life-sized model train station. With real train
tracks and waiting platform, they can practise their disgruntled face when it’s
announced that the train will be delayed by 1-minute.
Three giant slides in Shizuoka with views overlooking a lake. The middle image shows an original roller slide which most children go down on their feet so that they gain extra speed.
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| Children have access to loose tires to roll down the ramp at this tire park in Kamata, Ota |
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| Imaginations run wild with the recycled tire dinosaurs and robots at Kamata Tire Park |
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| Standard concrete slide in Shizuoka |
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| Most public school in Japan have unicycles for students to use during playtime and the play equipment has metal chains to climb on |
