{"id":87297,"date":"2016-05-27T11:11:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T02:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=feature&#038;p=87297&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2019-06-04T17:39:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T08:39:03","slug":"central-childrens-center-fun-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/central-childrens-center-fun-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Children&#8217;s Center: Fun for All Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Located in downtown Tenjin, the popular Fukuoka City Central Children&#8217;s Center is the only such facility in the city. The facility, closed since its demolition in 2014, reopened this April and has been given the moniker of Aikuru. Aikuru is a coinage based on the words <em>aikurushii<\/em> (adorable)\u2014 like the smiling faces of the children\u2014and <em>ai ni kuru<\/em> (come to meet)\u2014in reference to the facility\u2019s role a meeting place for people of all ages.<\/p>\n<p>The new center is not only a place for kids\u2019 activities; it also serves as a venue where parents can receive child-rearing support. It has a fitness room with a bouldering wall and other exercise equipment, a multipurpose room, a rehearsal room, an arts and crafts room, study booths, and a small library. You can also borrow unicycles and roller skates for use in the open-air rooftop play area.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/fn210fukuoka-topic-e1464266015283.jpg?resize=640%2C479\" alt=\"fn210fukuoka-topic\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87298\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Another important role of the children\u2019s center is as a provider of childcare support services. There is an hourly drop-in childcare service for infants and toddlers as well as occasional childrearing consultations and seminars. Throughout the year, a wide range of events, including puppet theater shows and toy repair workshops, and club activities (e.g., dance, crafts, <em>shogi<\/em> (Japanese chess) and more) are held.<\/p>\n<p>Although the old center gave the impression that services focused on small children and elementary school students, the new center is attracting more users from junior and senior high schools. The first three floors of the building in which the center is located are occupied by private businesses, including Kyushu\u2019s first-ever Sony Store. Some of the IT companies in the building also hold workshops for kids, so be sure to stop by and check out the new-and-improved Central Children&#8217;s Center. It&#8217;s fun for all ages!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (<a href=\"http:\/\/issuu.com\/fukuokanow\/docs\/fn-210-web\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fn210<\/a>, Jun. 2016)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Located in downtown Tenjin, the popular Fukuoka City Central Children&#8217;s Center is the only such facility in the city. The facility, closed since its demolition in 2014, reopened this April and has been given the moniker of Aikuru. Aikuru is a coinage based on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"87297","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[5145],"class_list":["post-87297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-fukuoka-topics","location-fukuoka-prefecture","en-US"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/fn210fukuoka-topic-e1464266015283.jpg?fit=640%2C479&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121548,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87297\/revisions\/121548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}