It's only fucking 27 years old and a National museum, auditorium and children's center that's packed to the rafters with kids---10-to-20% gaijin or hafu---on the weekends. Children's Castle has had 30 million visitors (including myself many times) since its award-winning architecture went up to commemorate the International Year of the Child in 1985.
Japanese closure announcement:
http://www.kodomono-shiro.jp/info/whatsnew/300.html
Above: The entrance of National Children’s Castle and the sculpture "Tree of Children（こどもの樹)" by Taro Okamoto
debito.org's guest author, "“Bitter Valley" san writes...
..Our disgust (my wife is appalled and angry, rare for her, it takes a lot to make her disgusted) Kodomo no Shiro (Kiddies Castle) (http://www.kodomono-shiro.jp/index.shtml) up the road (Omotesando) is being closed in 2015 due to “lack of demand.”
Turn my brain upside down- white is black and black is white. The place is like a non-branded treasure trove for kids, with an excellent kiddies gym, educational and workshop facilities and an AV and music center, excellent, trained staff — who don’t treat gaijin any differently from any other kids or parents.
Lack of demand? The place is brilliant, popular and packed out. On any given weekend, it’s also packed with foreign kids, haafus, kids from all over the place. It genuinely is a major popular, well-run, packed out educational and fun palace for all sorts of children — open, tolerant, vibrant, safe and cheap.
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