Kurume City Chuo Koen

A lovely walk in the park

Close to Nishitetsu Kurume and Kushihara Stations, there is a large park with a bird park, a theme park with a Ferris wheel and waterslide, and a science museum with an observatory. I have only walked through a couple times, while on the way to Youme Town or the library. Now I'm planning when to go and spend some more time there. I think it looks like a great place to go with kids and explore, but I'm a kid at heart, so I want to go play too. Without paying anything, we can enter the park and enjoy a few things. From the south side of the park (near Taiho Ramen's original location) there's the entrance to Gokoku Shrine along with a nice sloping bridge over a pond. There are covered sitting areas, one covered with wisteria vines. Next to a big open lawn, there's a manmade stream with rocks and a stonehenge-like rock sculpture, fun for kids to play near (but with plenty of signs to be careful). Farther north, there are several tennis courts and a track where local schools often have games and meets. There is also an indoor swimming pool near there. The entrance to the kids theme park and bird park is facing the tennis courts, behind the science musuem. Signs with an image of a peacock indicate the aviary from the street on the east side of the park. During spring there are cherry blossoms and the main road is lined with gingko trees, so they're a beautiful gold color in late fall. The cute pastel Ferris wheel always cheers me up. It's a great place to walk through on your visit to the bird park or science museum, or just bring a lunch and eat outside on a nice day.