The Kitamoto city office is a modern building that houses lots of practical services in the one facility. It makes so much sense, but it is actually quite rare for a municipality to offer a cluster of public services in the same area. I get why they disperse them, there are a million reasons to do so, but I love that in Kitamoto we can spend a fun free day without having to move from one location to the next.
Kitamoto Children’s Library is located on the entrance level floor of the City office building, which like in America, in Japan is referred to as the first floor. It is not a huge space, but it doesn’t need to be as it only houses children’s books. Upstairs there are two floors of an excellent free children’s community center known as jidokan in Japanese.
The library like the rest of the building is only a few years old. It has a nice earthy feel about it and is comfortable and appealing to small children. The flooring is wood with sections of soft carpet mats. They have low tables for children to sit at. Some with cushions to use on the floor, others with low chairs to sit on. You can not eat in the library, but there is a room you can use in the community center above for eating and drinking. Likewise, they have baby changing facilities up there too. There are toilets beside the library.
The selection of books and magazines in Japanese is great, but unfortunately they don’t have a lot of English (or other language) books. They do have a lot more “yomikikase” events than most libraries. Yomikikase is storytelling time, when a member of the library’s staff reads a book out loud to children. They have a dedicated space for storytelling, the “storytelling wood”, in the library.
This is the only children’s library that I know of in Saitama. It is in an entirely different building to the main central library of Kitamoto, but conveniently that is only a two minute walk away. Most, if not all, libraries have a children’s section, but a dedicated library for children’s books is something I personally hadn’t seen until this library was opened. Do you know of any children’s only libraries in Saitama?
Like the majority of libraries in Saitama, this is a municipal library. There are only two public libraries in the whole of Saitama. With a municipal library anyone is entitled to go in and read the books on site, but only people who are resident in Kitamoto City (OR whose town / city has a mutual lending agreement with Kitamoto City) may borrow books from this library. More information on using libraries in Saitama (external site).
Kitamoto Children’s Library Information
Hours: Open 9 am to 7 pm seven days a week
Address: 1 Chome-111 Honchō, Kitamoto-shi, Saitama-ken 364-0033
Phone: 048-598-7642
Other children’s facilities in Kitamoto
The very excellent Kitamoto Children’s Community Center in the same building as the library…
One of the best parks for small childrens in the area, Kitamoto Children’s Park…
Frequently listed as the best factory tour in Kanto; the Glico Pia East aka the Pocky Factory tour…
looks like a great resource!
Truly blessed with all the great free resources here 🙂