The Best Children's Sports Park and Obstacle Course in Tokyo!

I found a most wonderful place to take the kids for a day out in the sun and for some great excitement, fun, sports and adventure. It is called Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course (平和の森公園 フィールドアスレチックコース)  and it's about a ten minute walk from Keihin Kyuko Heiwajima station or a ten minute bus ride from JR Omori station. 


The Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course is an obstacle course for kids. The entire course, from start to finish has 40 obstacles that the kids have to challenge. There's climbing giant rope and wood jungle gym types of structures to climbing over walls using ropes to jungle bars and rowing across ponds full of deadly piranhas (oh, and I'm kidding about the piranhas part). You and your child could have a wonderful time at this fun park.


I'd say that it is best for children between the ages of 6 to 12 but younger ages will also have a blast at this park as mom and dad can help them out with the obstacles that are too scary!


Yesterday, I went there with a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds to chaperon for a birthday party and I also wanted to check out the facilities. I was very impressed. The Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course is run by the local government (please don't get me started on what the heck the local government is doing running an athletic course for kids, as that's another story) but admission for children was an incredibly low ¥100! Adults are ¥360!


Okay. I've found the best and cheapest place to enjoy a Saturday or Sunday in Tokyo for under ¥500! Parking is available and dirt cheap (I parked for more than three hours and it was only ¥600).


This place is a real diamond in the rough, folks! I think this is one of the best and most refreshing and healthy places you could take your kids to on a day and have some real fun!


The kids love it!... (Thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Humphrys) 

Here is a map of the park at the entrance featuring all the obstacles. See a larger map online here.

Looks daunting. It is, but safe. Kids start at the left, climb over the log, up the ramp, 

then climb down the rope ladder on the other side.

In the west they might call this the Tom Sawyer ride. In Japan it's like Issun Boshi.

There were about 5 huge structures like this that are fun to look at as they 

are to challenge and climb! Take your child and have them bring a few friends! 

Great for a kid's birthday party!

Heck, this one looked so fun even I wanted to ride it... (But I'm afraid of heights!)

Not quite as tough as the Marines or Navy Seals, but pretty darned tough for an 8 year old... 

What kid wouldn't go crazy over riding in a basket over the dangerous valley?

Speaking of danger, watch out for the crocodiles and piranhas! Moms! Dads! 

Definitely need to bring extra clothes & shoes two kids fell in when I was there! 

The kids would get to the top of one of these and want to stay there. 

I had to tell them to hurry to the next obstacle.

This area kind of reminded me of Disneyland's Adventureland... 

It just looked like fun and the obstacles didn't disappoint! At this obstacle

kids had to help each other to get across. Team work!

Running across the floating logs? Yep. Scary and a distinct possibility of getting wet!

Older kids can do this... But I even saw parents with 3 or 4 years old kids 

and the moms and dads carried their kids while they challenged 

the obstacles... A great time together!

Great fun. Exercise. The Outdoors. Camraderie. 

What more could a parent want for their child?

I give Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course (平和の森公園 フィールドアスレチックコース) 5 stars for a great cheap place to take your children where they can spark their imagination with adventure and get a day out and some great exercise. It's fun, cheap and a wonderful memory!

NOTES:

1) Definitely take at least one pair of extra clothes and shoes in case your child falls into the water.

2) There are no restaurants or coffee shops nearby 

3) There are no shower facilities.

4) There is another park outside so if you want to have a birthday party there, you'll need to have the cake and pizza or sandwiches at the park outside the entrance of the athletic course.

5) I hear it gets crowded on weekends around lunchtime so I recommend getting there early!

6) If the course weren't crowded, then I expect that it should take an hour or two to complete depending on the age of your child.

Here's a great explanation and more detailed photos of entire course (in Japanese).

Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course 

(平和の森公園 フィールドアスレチックコース) 

Address: 

Heiwa no Mori Koen 2-1

Ohta-ku, Tokyo

Te: 03-3766-1607

Business hours: 

Opens at 9:30 am (last entrance at 15:00) Closed at 16:00 

Closed on Mondays and bad weather days

Entrance fee: 

Children and Junior high school students: ¥100

Above high school and adults: ¥360 

Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course URL (Sorry Japanese only): http://www.city.ota.tokyo.jp/shisetsu/sports/fieldathletics.html

Map: 

Am I the Only Person Who Doesn't Care About the Grammy Awards?

The title to this blog says it all. Am I the only person who doesn't care about the Grammy Awards? I saw this comment on Facebook and was relieved that there is someone who thinks like me. Sometimes I've wondered if I am the only person in the entire world who doesn't care about this stuff and doesn't watch it. I don't care about the Academy Awards or the Oscars or the Super Bowl either. They are all boring.

Yes. That's what I said! B-O-R-I-N-G! Of course all professional sports are boring. And, since pro sports are big money entertainment, they aren't what they seem. Big money equals big corruption (or haven't you been paying attention?). Anyway, who cares if some professional team beats another one? They really have nothing to do with your city (besides a contract with a stadium or auditorium) and their winning will not change your life in the least. Still people think they care. 

I also don't like these awards shows because of their high-brow attitude. I don't like "snooty high-brow" anything whereby people try to act like they are important or the center of the world (or even the center of wherever it is that they are at in any given moment.) It's like the folks who are in a members-only club; I don't like it.

I sometimes get invited to join these members-only clubs. Chuckle. I always use the Groucho Marx quote: "I refuse to join any club that would allow people like me as a member."

"Whatever it is... I'm against it!"

Today, I got an email from a friend in Hollywood who produces independent music, videos and films. He wrote:

"Wow, trying to watch the Grammy's, you were correct. You would have contracted jet lag (coming to Los Angeles) just to be bored to death. I like some country music and was very into rap before it got big, I don't hate music for being popular, but this is so mindless and bloated - I don't feel bad these people are on a sinking ship. 

It's sad because pop music can be a great thing but they are trying to symbolically respond to things like Etta James and Whitney Houston dying but it reduces everything to packaged cheese."


Yes. That's it. Totally like packaged cheese! The Grammy's are boring because it is a bunch of people giving awards to themselves for turning music into packaged cheese... The ones who can ruin the music the most and make it into the most bland and tasteless cheese sold to the same people who like stuff like McDonald's food gets the awards.


Great! Watching milk curdle! What excitement.


And what's even worse is that there are people who live such boring and unsatisfying lives that they think they actually care about this stuff...


It's too bad people have such uninteresting lives that they find this sort of Bread & Circuses entertaining or gratifying in the least.

Perfect timing for a ratings boost.... And crocodile tears...

We live in a very sick society that is fascinated by idol worship. Too bad people don't go out and get a life.


I think your average kitchen toaster offers a better evening of entertainment than the Grammy Awards do.


Thanks to Mickey Valentine and James Valentine (I don't think they are any relation!) 

Winners, Losers, Sports, Kids, and Adult Children: Taking Lemons and Making Lemonade

A young and talented writer I know had entered a essay contest. The winners were to be awarded a cash prize, the sum of which was to be divided up amongst the top five contestants. My writer friend was hoping that he could win part of that cash to visit Japan and extend his studies.

LIke I said, he is a talented writer and, in spite of very heavy and fierce competition, he placed fifth amongst thousands of contestants. 


Well done!

He was thrilled. Well, thrilled, that is, of course, until after the winners were announced with a tiny minor detail change: Due to budget cuts, the top five winners wouldn't share the prize money, only the top two winners would share in the prize money. 

Naturally he was disappointed. The contest organizers had broken a promise.


My friend wrote to me about his disappointment and this is what I wrote back:

Dear Peter,

Fifth place is excellent and you have nothing to be sad about. Sure, the prize part of the deal didn't turn out as you were promised, but take that as a lesson in life too... Often times things do not turn out as expected.

It seems to me that we learn these lessons well when we are entering the transition world from school to supposedly gainful employment.

Let me tell you about my own experience that your story reminds me of. But first, some background....


When I was a child we were pretty poor. 

As a child in the sixties I lived with my mom and dad and two brothers. I don't know how my mom made do. My father was merely a low paid US marine sergeant, who was always away from home as the Vietnam War was in full swing. We didn't have much yet my mother was somehow able to always give us enough and, while we didn't feast like kings, we had enough to eat. 


Like I said, my father was rarely home so I was raised by dear old mom.


As I got older, I realized how clever my mother was. She was smart and adroit enough at finances to turn my father's meager salary into buying a house and flipping it over to a bigger house each time on three separate occasions.

Even to this day, I am amazed when I think about how well my mother was able to make do with a very limited amount of resources. Anyhow, as you can guess most of my very early formative years were spent being raised by my mom.


But I digress....

When I got older and graduated from school, I got a high paying job. I was so thankful for that and have always tried to remember where I came from and who I am. It is for this reason that I have always felt that I should "give back" to society. I wanted to help kids and especially those who didn't share time with their fathers.

I started coaching 8 year olds in basketball and soccer... Most of those kids came from broken homes and I wanted to help them have fun and do sports and not be such a dorky kid that couldn't do three push-ups like me.

If you've ever coached a kids sports team, then you'll know how really smelly the entire league operation can be. Basically, it seems to me that a bunch of dads get together and make the league. Then, they have "trials" whereby the dads who set the league up take the pick of the best and most athletic kids and start the league from there.

The non-athletic kids (mostly the ones who came from broken homes and didn't have a dad around to teach them how to throw or catch a ball like yours truly) were left off the teams. Then, the local city youth department would hunt down people to volunteer as coach. There was always a shortage of coaches so there were always a few hundred kids left off of teams with no chance to play.


Pretty pathetic when you stop to think about it, eh?

That also meant that people like me got the kids who were to be on a team that was a punching bag for the teams coached by the dads who had already taken the most athletic kids...

So much for teaching kids about "Sportsmanship."

If these parents really were interested in Sportsmanship and fair play, they make the team selection random and by drawing. Of course, their own child should be on dad's team... But the entire purpose and rationale of a city run youth sports department (that is funded with our taxes) is to allow all kids a chance to play. Not a select few.

Anyway, one year, I started coaching 8-year-olds in basketball with my best friend Jeff. Jeff and I were both in our early 20s. Most dads were in their 40s or 50s. Jeff and I had brothers and, through that life experience, we knew that to get good at sports, the best way to teach kids was to have them play with older, bigger, stronger and faster kids.

So we played basketball with them. Our kids, through this coaching style, got really good, really fast. We took a bunch of mediocre athletic kids and turned them into a powerhouse team. 

Halfway through the season, we played the best team. They were undefeated (and coached by a dad who started the league so they had all the best kids). We had already lost two games but when we played them, we defeated them by one point in a tough and tight battle.

We were ecstatic. The kids were exhausted. The league and other coaches were in disbelief.

Anyhow, in that basketball league, the rules at the start of the season were that the top 4 teams played off for the championships at the end of the season.  By some miracle our team finished 4th and was to only team to beat the #1 team in the league.

They had only suffered one defeat, from us. We were sure we could beat them again in the playoffs and pull off a championship.

It was not to be, though.

What did the dads running the league do? They changed the rules before the last game of regular season so that only the top 2 teams played off. We were pissed off. We were ripped off. They lied to us.

Of course the top team, the one we had beaten, went on to win the championship. Pretty sh*tty, eh?

Those kids were great players and they won the championship. But their fathers were a bunch of losers.

Many kids sports leagues are a similarly disgusting affair. They are a reflection of what's wrong with our society and many organizations, people and clubs.

Nevertheless, we were happy about the experience and, after the final game, we had a pizza party for the kids. 


There, one of the least athletic kids came up to me and he said, "Coach Mike. You are the best coach I have ever had and I will never ever forget you. Thank you."


It brought a tear to my eye. It still does.


So to my writer friend who has his victory taken away, to my kids that I coached and to you, dear reader, who has sometimes had what was promised taken away, let me say, 


Fear not! You have nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of. Sometimes life hands you lemons... But the truly wonderful and successful people take those and make lemonade. Winners take these experiences and use them to improve.


With each effort, the victory is just one step closer. Keep on at it and your day will come just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.


For Peter Dyloco

Sometimes You Do Have to Put Your Foot Down? Maybe Not!

I've been re-reading Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friend's and Influence People" for the umpteenth time.  I must be a poor reader because I am guilty of doing what Carnegie says not to do:


Be an as*hole and jump on other people (who are acting like as*holes). Of course, Carnegie is a great writer so he doesn't say it as eloquently as I do.


I'd like to take this short post and use it to remind myself how criticizing people - especially in front of others - is one of the worst things you can do.


I run a talent agency. Of course there are a very many people, "Talent," who work there. "Talent" are often very insecure people. Of course they are... They are in a very insecure job in a very insecure business that could end at any time... Not only could it end at any time, but there are no guarantees; you could have a job today and be out of a job tomorrow.


It's kind of like being a professional sports athlete: You'd better have your act together or you are done real soon. Half-assed people need not apply.


I've also worked as a producer, general manager and company president and founder. I've even taken a company that lost $140 million dollars in ten years, turned it around and put it into profitability within 2 years. Of course I didn't do that alone, I had a great team and was smart enough to get great people around me.


I'm doing the same at my newest venture: I may not be an expert in the tech field or even a top quality salesman or expert in our field, but I am expert enough to get the best people around me who do know what they are doing. And I am smart enough to know how to motivate people to do and be their best.


The ideas in "How to Win Friend's and Influence People" have worked to help me over an over so many times that I can't count them all. At my new venture, I have one of the best technical engineers on my staff... Even so, I suspect that this gentleman isn't very happy with the direction things are going.


You see, as a technical engineer and creator, this gentleman is an artist. Often, in the course of business, we have to make decisions that accommodate business and profitability over creativity. This sometimes leads towards unhappiness amongst the creative staff. I have suspected that this person might be dis-satisfied and wanting to quit.


What to do?


Of course, appreciation and sincere compliments are in order. And, of course, these should be done in the presence of others. Before a meeting started this morning, I arose and said, 


"The other day, I was at Apple Japan. There, I met the director of marketing for all of Apple Asia. I showed him our new service and he was mightily impressed. He told me that our service was a winner and that we were sure to succeed... I told him that I believe that we can because we have the best staff and engineers in all of Japan."


And, this was a true story. I could have said to the Apple boss,


"Yes. Thank you." And not chosen to compliment my staff, but I saw the opportunity to be able to pass on praise where praise was past due. Relating this story in front of the engineer to the entire company staff made him blush with pride. That's what I wanted to do. It was honest and sincere praise spoken in a humble manner.


Do you think that made him proud? Do you think that motivated him to do more?


Of course it did. Praise is a powerful motivator and people - all people - desperately desire to be recognized and appreciated for their efforts. Nothing beats sincere praise, especially if it is delivered in front of other people...


I also overheard a story about how an executive belittled one of his staff in front of other people the other day. The person on the receiving end of this criticism told me she was so embarrassed and ashamed. She didn't feel good at all and she told me that she wanted to quit.


Nothing will earn your scorn more than criticizing your staff in front of others. It is a self-defeating process. Do you think that girl will work harder for this boss? If she, and every one else loses their motivation, how does that help this boss?


Nothing will earn you more respect and admiration from your staff, and getting more out of them, than praising them in public as much as possible and always thanking them for your success.

I believe, as my dear old dad used to say, "You can catch as many flies with sugar as you can with sh*t! So why give people sh*t?"

He's right. You can get great results with praise. You can never make yourself look better by criticizing others.  

You can motivate ordinary people to do great things by utilizing this basic understanding of the human psychology and human mind.  


I see this psychology at work in the sports and sports marketing business. I rarely see it in action in the music business. Perhaps because, sports are almost always a team effort. Music is often a dog eat dog competition between individuals. Sports is almost always a team effort. 


In the last month have had the experience of working with people inside a huge 20,000 person concert event and a 20,000 person sports event. I was behind the scenes of both events. I saw how people were treated and how the management structures were set up.


All I can really say is that I get the distinct impression that the people working in the sports marketing field are of much higher quality and much more intelligent and competent than the people working in music. It makes sense too, when you stop to think about it:


In high school, especially in Japan, a certain group of kids leaned towards music and a different group levitated towards sports. Of course not everyone, but it seems to me that the kids who studied the hardest and got the best grades moved to sports. Since they studied hard and did sports, they got good grades and went to good universities. There, after that, the got good jobs hat paid well.


Musicians and music people? Hmmm? Am I confused when I say that not too many musicians even go to college?


Anyway, I digress... The point is not a comparison of the quality of the average worker in the sports market versus the average worker in the music business. The point is that, after witnessing two very different world's: One through a sports event and one through a music event, I can say that motivating your people as a team - like a sports organization - is a much better way to increase your chances of success, whether your business is music, sports, fashion, whatever...


Winning teams are built on respect and pride... You won't get it criticizing people. Criticism is no way to motivate people. It your own worst enemy. Don't do it. Praise people and make them feel good. 


Praising your staff is just smart business!