Bornelund

This German/Dutch sounding toy store is actually Japanese.  Founded in 1981, its president is a Japanese woman now in her early 60s.  This is the kind of store where lots of stuff is made of wood and much of it is imported from Europe and Scandinavia.  You can buy adorable wooden food replicas, wooden puzzles, cars, trains and bikes, lots of beading and weaving, and you can spend hundreds of dollars on intricate contraptions where marbles go plinkety-plunk through a series of obstacles in a maze.  

A new Bornelund store just opened in Roppongi Hills so I can always walk over with Max when we are bored.  A couple of the stores also have fantastic indoor play areas and Max and I went to the one in Yokohama with new friends Fumie and Tamano.  It was a young kid's dream land. Geared for infants to age 5 or 6, there were tons of things to bounce and climb on, an area to ride bikes and trikes, ball pits, play kitchens, puzzles, trains sets, and jungle gyms.

Max really got into a super long bouncy runway and you can see him in the clip below.  We also spent time in a giant yellow bouncy station (kind of like at the county fair), where we flung ourselves at the walls and floor.  Then we tried rolling in a giant inflated tube.  Finally, Max cooked some grapes and chilled out a bit at the train table.