Nishibaru Pirate Ship Park

I tried to be brave with a friend the other week and find a new park. We both started out at Kinser with the same directions, but she ended up never finding it, and I found it by luck. It was great having a play date with a friend while we played at different parks. :) We ended up staying at this pirate ship park for a couple hours, because the weather was gorgeous. In that time, 2 little classes of Japanese preschoolers came to play with us. From what I have gathered, not all the schools here have their own playgrounds, so they bring kids to the community parks nearby. They all looked cute in their flappy brightly-colored baseball caps. A couple of the kids kept running up to me to practice an English phrase or two, and then they would run off laughing. There was a cable rope swing that A. was brave enough to try once she saw all the other kids doing it. They really are brave here. The spaces in between the logs that made up this wood bridge were big enough for her to fall all the way through this time, but the Japanese seem to like "playing at your own risk". I'm not sure which side I'm on yet. . the sissy American side with developmentally appropriate playthings, or the adventurous, let kids be kids side of this country! The kids try to talk to A. and she tries to talk back to them, but it takes them both awhile to realize that they don't understand each other. Most of the time they just give her some funny looks while she is left trailing behind them trying to get them to listen! We both do a lot of smiling to make up for our lack of language so far. An old lady came over and took D. from me when she saw that A. needed rescuing from the crow's nest. They always ask if she is a boy or a girl, because they don't really use gender colors here, so dressing her in pink has no meaning for them. There were lots of boys wearing pink hats at the playground.