Warabekan

Back during Tottori Orientation, I had arranged with my PA to meet today for a playdate. So Yana, Justin, and I took the train in to Tottori city and then took the bus to Warabekan, the Tottori toy museum. We met her and her two kids, M and H, in front of the museum. We wanted to get together because M is the same age as Yana and although she speaks English and Japanese (my PA is married to a Japanese man), she doesn't get the chance to really play with English-speaking kids.

It was Y250 for me and Justin, which is discounted from the normal price because we're foreigners, and Yana was free!

It was a great day out, especially for Yana, who has probably been a bit lonely lately. A guy from my BOE came over with his 4 year old daughter while he was setting up our TV yesterday, but both kids seemed a little shy and confused about not understanding each other.

Anyway, there was a special exhibit on at Warabekan, which was basically a room full of toys. There were things like dolls and trains, but also some fun Japanese games too. It wasn't too busy either, which was great. They also have this cool thing at the front door which is a toy hospital kind of thing. Basically you can bring in any broken toys and have them fixed for free by the toy doctors!

The kids playing fishing in the front area; behind are the toy doctors.

After playing for an hour or two we decided to eat lunch. Unfortunately it was pouring rain outside, so we had to eat inside. We also ended up cancelling the second part of our playdate due to the rain, which was a visit to Kodomo no Kuni. Kodomo no kuni (lit. "children's country") is a park for kids, and only during summer vacation they have a splash pad and petting zoo open and today was the last day! :( We will definitely have to go next summer, because it looks so fun for kids and you can hold baby goats and hamsters and stuff!