After so long staying home, we needed a breath of fresh air (literally), so we headed to some outdoor fun at Tokyo German Village. The 18-hole mini-golf isn’t bad!

Visiting the Tokyo German Village

The Tokyo German Village (also called the Tokyo Doitsu Mura / 東京ドイツ村) isn't actually in Tokyo, but it's certainly not in Germany either! Confused? The Tokyo German Village is a traditional German village theme park, and it's across the bay from Tokyo, in Chiba Prefecture. While it's called a theme park, there's more park space than rollercoasters, with traditional-looking German buildings and a handful of carnival-style rides at the center of quite a few large green spaces, gardens, and (our goal today) a mini-golf course!

First, tickets! We went for this special 25% discount ticket. For 1,500 yen it gives you 2,000 yen worth of ride and attraction tickets. There are automatic ticket machines there, so we bought the tickets on-site. The ticket machines only take 1,000 yen bills, though. Making change for larger bills is kind of a pain, but what are you going to do?

Next, we found our way over to the mini-golf course! Here it's called "putter golf," and instead of the crazy mini-golf you sometimes see in other countries, each of the holes here looks natural. They just shape the land to make each of the 18 parts uniquely challenging. Of course you can rent the golf clubs and balls there. Choose your favorite putter!

The course was enough to entertain my two elementary school age kids! It felt great to spend time somewhere out in the open, with so much space to breathe and move. Altogether it took us about an hour to make our way through the 18-hole mini-golf course, and it even felt like a light workout, being on the move for an hour.

There's also a playground area, where kids can run around and play to their hearts' content.

With our leftover tickets we went grass sledding! (No snow sledding in June!) Just once down the hill wasn't enough for the kids, so they slid down the hill a second time… and eventually spent about 30 full minutes sledding down the hill over and over. I also gave it a try, and it's actually a pretty high hillーyou build up more speed than you might expect!

We tried a ride on the… pig? angel?? rollercoaster! The track starts with a bang and is over before you know it, but each ride they actually go around the entire course twice, so it doesn't feel too short.

They also have a dog run where you can bring your dogs, or even spend time with some dogs who live there. They have an area that's a little like a cat cafe, where you can pet the German Village dogs, or you can "rent" one and take them out for a walk. Maybe we'll try it next time we visit!

It's an easy drive from Tokyo, so the Tokyo German Village is a nice destination for anyone renting a car in Japan. You can also get there using public transportation, though. They have instructions for which buses you can take from Chiba Station and other stations on the German Village website.

Tucked away in Sodegaura, Chiba, the Tokyo German Village is full of greenery and flowers, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy a relaxed day out in the sunshine.