I love the park surrounding it, and I have heard that Tokyo Midtown takes responsibility for Hinokicho Park. It is sad that we often encounter unfriendly Tokyo Midtown security guards who only reprimand foreigners for playing nicely in the park but not reprimand Japanese people who let their children roam wild because of entering the stream, walking through waterfalls, climbing the rocks or climbing on top of the swing structure, which you are definitely not supposed to do! (see photo: only two photos because google doesn’t allow me to upload older photos - japanese elementary school child after school AND japanese middle/high school boys with their teacher no less)

I feel that the design of the park allows people to be one with nature and play as if you are in a small nook during a hike. We never allow the children to go into the big pond near the sheltered area, but we loved climbing trees and playing water in the small stream. And since it’s such shallow water, we were comfortable allowing children to play there. There is nothing blocking the area to stop people from going in, and we see people sitting on the rocks around the stream for a chat or just to cool down.

However, beware that if there is a security guard making rounds, you will be told to leave. They continuously refer to the sign where it says do not enter the pond but we were only at the very shallow stream and was not even close to the pond. This is extremely disappointing. If they don’t allow people use the facilities freely, then they should not design it that way. They might as well just make a big flat space for children to run in with nothing other than grass. Maybe they should just do what they do in China and rope off the grass to prevent people from entering so the grass will remain “beautiful” but useless.

The design of the structures are not well thought out. It looks unique in a strange way. I don’t understand why they decide to make the entire structure using metal when it is evident that the heat would make that any attempt to slide down the metal slide on a slightly hotter day would surely result in a bad burn. The structures are blocky and do not look very inviting at all. I also feel that it makes it difficult to fully supervise a child when there are many blind spots at the top. It also prevents children from seeing how crowded it is on top and therefore often creates “traffic jams”. Again, it seems that they only think about the “art” rather than functionality.

Minato city charges so much tax to the residents, yet the very things the money goes to, we are not allowed to freely use and are not thought out thoroughly through the lens of the users and community.

Such a shame.