Scheduled to be completed this autumn, “Yambaru Forest Toy Museum”

“Yambaru”, located in the north part of Okinawa Main Island, is a treasury of nature inhabited by more than 5,000 kinds of plants and animals, the most representative of which is the “Yanbaru Kuina” (Okinawa Rail).
The “Yambaru Forest Toy Museum”, where you can get in touch with nature at Yambaru, is scheduled to be completed in November, 2013.
The “Yambaru Forest Toy Museum” is located in the renovated multipurpose hall made at the forest park by Kunigami Town and it is the first sister museum of the “Tokyo Toy Museum” in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is a community-based museum operated by the local forest association.

Among the toys planned to be placed in the hall are many unique toys which make use of the blessings of Okinawa’s forests.
For example, for play equipment like slides and tunnels, the historic “Saion pine” is used.
The Saion pines were planted by “Saion”, the father of the forest industry in Okinawa, and although they are precious, the trees which have fallen during typhoons can be used. 

Also, with blocks made of “deigo”, the official flower of Okinawa Prefecture and the lightest type of wood in Japan, and “isunoki”, the heaviest wood in Japan, children can notice the differences in weight while playing and feel the mystery of Mother Nature.  

It’s great that children, who are our future, can get in touch with nature and find a place in their hearts for cherishing the wilderness. I have no doubt that this will become a new tourist destination of Yambaru.

The “Yambaru Forest Toy Museum” is now seeking “curator” sponsors.
Why don’t you lend a hand in helping to fill the museum with toys?
For for details, please check the URL below
https://readyfor.jp/projects/okinawa_toy_museum

Okinawa CLIP Editorial Office