Nishinomiya City to Open Seven Grounds Free for Kids

It looks like Nishinomiya City will be opening up its grounds (outdoor sports facilities) for children to use free of charge.

※From Nishinomiya City’s LINE (3/18)

There are 7 sports grounds

Seven city-run grounds that usually require a fee will be opened for free use. (The free-use dates have been set.)

• Central Gymnasium (Athletics Stadium)
• Central Gymnasium (Central Multipurpose Ground)
• Central Gymnasium Annex (Annex Baseball Field)
• Ryutsu Higashi Gymnasium (Ryutsu Higashi Baseball Field)
• Shiose Gymnasium (Shiose Central Park Multipurpose Plaza)
• Hama-Koshien Multipurpose Ground
• Nishinomiya-hama Multipurpose Ground

Each facility has its own scheduled free-use dates, so please check the details on the Nishinomiya City page.

(Nishinomiya-hama Multipurpose Ground)

Grounds really are spacious, aren’t they?

Only elementary, junior high, and high school students are eligible

This is being done for children who have not been able to get enough exercise or relieve stress due to the impact of the novel coronavirus.

So the program is limited to elementary school, junior high school, and high school students only.

Nishinomiya City is also asking users to take infection-prevention measures when using the facilities.

• Please avoid activities where large numbers of people gather closely together at once
• Please refrain from participating if you have cold-like symptoms such as coughing, fever, or a sore throat, or if you are otherwise feeling unwell
• Please thoroughly wash your hands, disinfect, and gargle before and after use

Lastly

It seems that all facilities except the Central Multipurpose Ground at the Central Gymnasium had already been opened for free use from the 18th. Since the announcement date and start date were the same, they must have decided on it quickly and opened them up right away.

A lot of neighborhood parks prohibit ball games, so maybe kids will play with balls in such a large space. I wonder what they’ll do there. Playing tag in a place that big sounds exhausting (comment from an unfit adult)

Oh, right, apparently kids these days call tag “onigo.” What did you all call it?