Fun all year round in Kamihira Park

Kamihira park is located in Ageo City in the central area of Saitama Prefecture. It has several sporting facilities, playground equipment, water play and some seasonal flowers too. There is also a shop / café in the park at the baseball stadium. Maruyama Park is, in my opinion, the best park in Ageo City. But Kamihira Park is a good alternative for families with children, just looking for somewhere to play for a few hours. Also, for locals, the sports facilities are very convenient and reasonably priced. Moreover, there are some really great events at the park each year, including Agetake each May.

Kamihira Park, Ageo

We loved this park so much after our first visit in 2013, we have visited several times since. An account of that very first visit below and after that there is information for the water play area and Agetake in 2023:

My overwhelming impression of today’s new park is that it is the most used park I’ve been to this month. A friend commented to me recently that Japanese people don’t bring their kids to play outdoors in January. I hadn’t given it much thought until then, but it really does seem to be true in a lot of areas. However, Kamihira park in Ageo City defies that theory as there were plenty of people making use of the park’s facilities.

Kamihira park has, what seems to be, a very popular tennis club. There is also a jogging course, not to mention the baseball pitch and stadium. All, but the latter were getting full usage today. I couldn’t believe the buzz in the park, I haven’t seen a park that busy since late November. The patrons were largely pensioners and mothers with young children.  You often see retired people walking or playing gate ball in parks in Japan, but I have never seen so many of the older generation in one park at one time.  And I haven’t seen so many young children in the playground since Autumn.

One of the pieces of playground equipment is a bucket crane truck.  My son (3 years old) was in playground heaven! I think this may even be a contender for a coveted position on his top ten playground list. (Please note that since the pandemic began there are no chains on the buckets, so you can’t use the cranes properly.)

Added after 2020:

Water Play area

Kamihira Park has a very nice and popular water play area. In 2023, the water play area will open from Golden Week. They have split it into two “seasons” this year. The first is from April 29th to July 17th, but will be closed on May 5th, 6th, 20th, 21st and June 4th and 5th. The second starts July 21st until August 24th. The hours of use in 2023 are 10 am to 3 pm only. There will be times that it closes suddenly due to weather or a large event at the park. Some other water play areas that opened in 2022 and presumably will in 2023 too.

Agetake 2023

The water play area usually closes when there are other large events in the park. This year it is closed on May 20th and 21st, because that is the weekend of Agetake in 2023. Agetake is a baseball event with food vans and festival stalls. There are approximately 40 stalls each year. Including one from everyone’s favorite farm in Ageo!

Official event web page.

Seasonal Blooms

It is not a particularly landscaped park. Thus, there are relatively few flowers. But the park does have some really nice roses. Again, nothing particularly big, but very nicely done. Particularly the mound of roses beside the North car park, with a gazebo on top. There are also some beautiful cherry blossom trees in the park too.

Kamihira Park Information

Access:

For more places to bring children in Saitama, please see the “play in Saitama” category or use the search engine.