If you’re in Nagoya with kids and they’re into Dinosaurs, you HAVE to go to see the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. Getting there is a bit of a mission, there’s no bullet train so we hired a car and drove there, which ended being over 3 hours. I was bored out of my brain for the 3 hours and got rather grumpy by the time we reached the actual Museum but it was all worth while.
At the time, I was manically obsessed with dinosaurs and could identify over 100 dino’s, had about 3,000 dino books, 25,000 dino toys and basically got interested in time machines in an attempt to go back in time to the age of the dinosaurs. Anyway, my Mum being Mum thought I’d love this, and she was right. Even my Dad ,who I’m sure was muttering under his breath F’s and C’s in the car about how long the car journey was, thought it was worth the drive. It’s an easy drive, not much traffic but rather a long way from Nagoya City and you have to be rather committed to do this.
Anyway, we finally arrived and I was in total dino heaven. Let me tell you something my brotha from another motha, I’ve been to a lot of museums, dinosaur themed parks and the like, but this was the best I’ve ever been to. I don’t want to talk it up too much because you might get there, have high expectations and then you can only be let down. However, this really is the place to go if you’re in Nagoya with kids and they like dinosaurs.
There’s dinosaurs everywhere here. Inside there’s loads of dinosaur fossils, life-like replica’s that move and well, it’s pretty much dinosaur paradise in every way you can imagine. You can even go for a dino dig but that had loads of people so we didn’t do that. You can have picnic lunch outside, play in the dino slide and dino playground. Pretty much a dream come true if you’re in Nagoya with kids and have the time to come here. Quite a few school tour groups here but it’s big enough that the crowds don’t really annoy you too much.
Odaka Ryokuchi Park is probably the best thing to do or place to go in Nagoya with kids, especially if you’re from Hong Kong where the fun police basically try and shut down any attempt at fun at all of Hong Kong Kong’s “Parks”. This is a massive park that you could probably spend a couple of days in. Loads of things to do, massive slides, small slides, playgrounds, go-kart track where you can ride with your mum and dad and a dinosaur playground. It’s spread out and you can’t really walk around it easily. Great place to run around with plenty of running tracks and just another good day out in another one of Japan’s excellent parks. It’s a bit run down but again, compared Hong Kong’s so called “parks”, this blows them all away.
Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens – This is a bit of a weird one. It’s about half an hour out of the city, loads of people there and not much parking. We ended up parking in the mini golf center about 10 minutes away, which you’re not supposed to do. The zoo is pretty typical for zoo’s in Japan, the animals don’t look to healthy and some of them are kept in what can only be described as atrocious conditions. Probably not a must-visit in Nagoya with kids, but if you’re looking for things to do, it’s not bad.
The other thing to do in Nagoya with kids that was quite good was the Toyota Commemorative Museum which is back in Nagoya City. You don’t need to be a petrol head to like this. Obviously loads of cars, both old and new, a big steam engine and a bunch of ok other exhibits and things to do. You get to make your own pull back car (free) which was pretty good and there’s enough things to do in here that you can spend at least a couple of hours in here. You’re not going to have the time if your life in here, unless you’re really into Toyota and cars, but it’s not bad. Put it on your list of things to do in Nagoya with kids.
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