Childcare Service Childcare Facility
Kyoto University Kids’ Community (KuSuKu)

About
“KuSuKu”
How to use
Educational program
&
Reservation status
Daily
schedule
Access

News

November 5th and 12th, 2023A pre-opening was held for Kyoto University faculty and students.
December 4th, 2023KuSuKu opening ceremony was held. *Japanese version only.
December 9th, 2023KuSuKu is newly opened.
February 1st, 2024We have published the program for March to May.
May 1st, 2024We have published the program for June to August.
May 1st, 2024We have published photos of our child care staff and a greeting from our director.
May 2nd, 2024KuSuKu Children's Day special lunch will be served on May 5th.

About “KuSuKu”

As part of the well-being of faculty, staff, and students, Kyoto University opened a childcare facility “Kyoto University Kids’ Community (alias: KuSuKu)”.
At KuSuKu, researchers from Kyoto University provide enjoyable educational programs in a space designed to facilitate new ideas that combine play and learning. Please consider giving your children a memorable educational experience at KuSuKu!
Also, when your child go home, please be sure to ask them about KuSuKu. I'm sure his eyes will shine and he will talk about all sorts of things.

Two goals that KuSuKu aims for

*The above is an example.


Contribute to raising the standard of world’s future research and technological capabilities.

Cooperative System

Five Values

1 Management that meets the needs of the university’s researchers, etc.	KuSuKu will be open on weekends, national holidays, and long elementary school vacations, when demand is high due to academic conferences, etc.
2 Educational programs supervised by Kyoto University experts in pedagogy and other fields.	Program content will be planned from the perspectives of pedagogy, brain science, etc., by a committee of Kyoto University faculty members.
3 Spatial planning that contributes to inclusivity and the SDGs.	A variety of areas that inspire play and learning, and a space to explore them. Mr. Maki Onishi and Yuki Hyakuta, a graduate of the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, (onishimaki+hyakudayuki architects / o+h) were in charge of the facility design. Furniture made from thinned wood from the Kyoto University Research Forest* *With the cooperation of Mr. Hiroshi Kato (Vice President of Karimoku Furniture Co., Ltd.), a graduate of Kyoto University's Faculty of Agriculture, KuSuKu's furniture using thinned wood from the Kyoto University Research Forest (Ashiu, Wakayama) was created.
4 Maximize use of Kyoto University’s research resources.	Kyoto University researchers serve as teachers. Activities based around Kyoto University research fields (farms, the university museum, etc.). The Kyoto University Museum We have a large selection of children's books written by Kyoto University researchers and academic and rare books that take advantage of the strengths of the university's after-school nursery school.
5 Cross-cultural exchange by international researchers and students enrolled at Kyoto University.	Lectures by Kyoto University international researchers, etc., and games with international students.

Illustrated Map of the Facility

Facility

Exterior	Outdoor playground
Multipurpose space/entrance	Library
Library （Step up room）	Mini Hall
Art studio and Kitchen dining room	Playroom

How to use

Opening date	December 9, 2023 (Sat.)
Facility operating days	Weekends, national holidays, and during elementary school summer/winter/spring vacations
Location	1F of the Kyoto University Archives building 15-9 Yoshida Kawahara-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501
Operating hours	8:00 a.m.－7:00 p.m. (extendable to 9:00 p.m.)
Capacity	35 children
Eligibility	Kyoto University faculty/staff members (including temporary staff) and regular students with children of elementary school age (grades 1–6)
Terms of use	It doesn‘t matter why you use it. In addition to those who are forced to leave their children at KuSuKu due to work reasons, KuSuKu is also available for those who want to give their children a meaningful experience during their elementary school holidays.
Fees	One day (8:00－19:00): ¥3,960(tax included) Fees are the same for weekends, holidays, and summer/winter/spring vacations. The following discounts will be applied depending on the number of days used per month. 5 days or more: 3,630 yen per day (tax included) 10 days or more: 3,520 yen per day (tax included) 15 days or more: 3,410 yen per day (tax included) Extension fee ¥1,100 per 30 minutes(tax included) If the child's parent is a student, all fees will be discounted by 20%. * If two or more children of the same parent use the service at the same time, the price for the second and subsequent children will be half price.
System of operation	Joint management by a steering committee consisting of Kyoto University faculty members and private childcare providers (Pasona Foster Inc.)
Application procedures	Please pre-register at the following link. https://www.pasonafoster.co.jp/facility/afterschool/4173/form.html Once pre-registration is completed, an email with instructions on how to apply for use of the service will be sent by Pasona Foster Inc.

Childcare System

We assign 1 supervisor and 2 assistants when the number of users is between 1 and 15, and 1 supervisor and 3 assistants when the number of users is between 16 and 35. At least two of these persons must be qualified (放課後児童支援員). Additional staff are assigned when there are children with special needs.
Some of our staff members are former elementary school teachers and have extensive experience in childcare. We place the highest priority on the safety of the children and try to provide childcare services suited to each child.

館内イラストマップ

Takashi Shigemitsu
Director of KuSuku

Greetings from the Director

KuSuKu is a spacious facility with many tricks here and there to tickle children's playful and intellectual curiosity. We welcome parents and children with enough staff to attend to each child at all times. We provide children with a place where they can grow and feel safe and secure, recognizing each child's individuality. We also take pleasure in the new discoveries that children who come to KuSuKu make through our educational programs.

Educational program & Reservation status

As a general rule, every day the center opens, either an academic program planned by Kyoto University or an experiential program provided by Pasona Foster Co., Ltd., the outsourcing company, will be held.

Characteristics of the academic program・Kyoto University researchers, former faculty members, etc., will participate as lecturers.
・A variety of programs will be provided to give elementary school students opportunities to learn about Kyoto University’s researchers and research fields, and to help them discover the fun of research and science, and the joy of understanding things through investigation.

NoticeEducation program schedules will be posted in 3-month units 1–2 months before their date of implementation on the Kyoto University Gender Equality Promotion Center website or on the dedicated website for applications.

Implementation schedule May. 2024－Aug. 2024

Academic Program: A program planned by a committee made up of Kyoto University faculty members

Experience program: Program provided by Pasona Foster Co., Ltd.

◎:more than 18 people left 〇:10 to 17 people left △:Less than 9 people left ×:fully booked
As of May 1st, 2024
*We will update the information regularly, but please note that we may not be able to make reservations due to time gap.

Date and Time		Title of the Program	Teacher	Eligibility (Recommended)	Application Status
Fri. May. 3	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Take a Quiz to Learn About the Elements *This program has been postponed. The experiential program provided by Pasona Foster Co., Ltd., will be offered instead.	Koichi Hagino, Professor, Graduate School of Science	All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. May. 4		SDGs/Crafting with Cardboard		All elementary grade students	◎
Sun. May. 5	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Fun Facts about Plankton in Lake Biwa	Shinichi Nakano, Professor, Center for Ecological Research	All elementary grade students	◎
Mon. May. 6		Making Masks by Art Lecturer		All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. May. 11		Exploring Nature(Search for Creatures)		All elementary grade students	◎
Sun. May. 12	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	The Mysterious World of Numbers	Tetsufumi Ito, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science	All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. May. 18		Making Kaleidoscopes		All elementary grade students	◎
Sun. May. 19	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Let’s Learn About Hydrogen Energy with LEGO!	Juro Yagi, Associate Professor, Institute of Advanced Energy	All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. May. 25		Programming		All elementary grade students	◎
Sun. May. 26	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Let's explore the secrets of plants!	Tomohiko Tsuge, Associate Professor, Institute for Chemical Research	All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. Jun. 1	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Crocodiles Growl, Monkeys Howl, Humans Sing!	Takeshi Nishimura Associate Professor Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	◎
Sun. Jun. 2		Making Paper Beads		All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. Jun. 8	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Learning about iPS cells with Card Games	Hiroyuki Wadahama Program-Specific Researcher Center for iPS Cell Research and Application	All elementary grade students	◎
Sun. Jun. 9		Making Sensory Bottles		All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. Jun. 15		Kamo River Walk: Let's Take Early Summer Photos with an iPad!		All elementary grade students	◎
Sun. Jun. 16		Programming		All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. Jun. 22		Cardboard Crafts: 3D Pop-Up Picture Books		All elementary grade students	◎
Sun. Jun. 23	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	I Found It! Mountain Medicine	Hina Nishimura Second-year master's student Graduate School of Letters	All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. Jun. 29		Making Colorful 3D Umbrellas			◎
Sun. Jun. 30	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Let's Look into the Mysteries of the Body!	Tomoko Wakamura Professor Graduate School of Medicine	All elementary grade students	◎
Sat. Jul. 6		Making Tanabata Decorations			◎
Sun. Jul. 7	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	The Mysteries of Electricity and Temperature	Itsuhiro Kakeya Associate Professor Graduate School of Engineering	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	◎
Sat. Jul. 13		Let's Be Creative! (tentative title)	Hiroko Hori Library/Residence Program Goethe-Institut Villa Kamogawa	Open to all elementary grade students	◎
Sun. Jul. 14	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	What Kind of Animals Were Dinosaurs?	Takeshi Setoguchi Director Kyoto Municipal Science Center for Youth (Professor Emeritus)	Open to all elementary grade students	◎
Mon. Jul. 15	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Let's Hatch Cicada Eggs!	Hideharu Numata Program-Specific Professor (Professor Emeritus) Kyoto University Research Administration Center (KURA)	Open to all elementary grade students	◎
Sat. Jul. 20	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Let's Get to Know the Baby in the Tummy!	Chifumi Otaki, Senior Lecturer Graduate School of Medicine	Open to all elementary grade students	◎
Sun. Jul. 21		Let's Look at the Summer Stars in the Planetarium!			◎
Tue. Jul. 23		Cardboard Crafts: Squid Airplanes			×
Wed. Jul. 24	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Cut, Knit, & Learn: Papercraft Seismology	Masumi Yamada Associate Professor Disaster Prevention Research Institute	Open to all elementary grade students	×
Thu. Jul. 25	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Regenerate Immune Cells to Fight Cancer and Viruses!	Hiroshi Kawamoto, Director and Professor Hiromi Sumita, Program-Specific Assistant Professor Institute for Life and Medical Sciences	Open to all elementary grade students	×
Fri. Jul. 26		Making Water Pistols			×
Sat.Jul. 27	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Let's Head into Town for Jizo-Bon!	Masahiro Maeda Associate Professor Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies	Open to all elementary grade students	◎
Sun. Jul. 28		Making Wind Chimes			◎
Mon. Jul. 29	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	The Future: Where Electricity Comes from the Sky, and Batteries Never Run Out(TBD)	Naoki Shinohara Professor Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	×
Tue. Jul. 30	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	The Mystery of Tails: Understanding People through "Tail-ology"	Sayaka Tojima Program-Specific Assistant Professor Hakubi Center for Advanced Research	Open to all elementary grade students	×
Wed. Jul. 31	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Viruses Can Be Fun?!	Akiko Makino Associate Professor Institute for Life and Medical Sciences	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	×
Thu. Aug. 1		Let's Draw Pictures Using All Five Senses!			×
Fri. Aug. 2	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Tough Stories from the Sea: The Great Adventures of a Baby Fish	Masatomo Tagawa Associate Professor Graduate School of Agriculture	Open to all elementary grade students	×
Sat. Aug. 3		Closed for facility maintenance
Sun. Aug. 4		Making interesting slime			◎
Mon. Aug. 5	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Let's Check Out Trilobites!	Terufumi Ohno Takada Junior College Director of the Library (Professor Emeritus)	Open to all elementary grade students	×
Tue. Aug. 6		Cardboard Crafts: Let's Make Pictures with Scraps			×
Wed. Aug. 7	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Parenting of Adelie penguins in Antarctica	Nobuaki Arai Professor Emeritus	TBD	×
Thu. Aug. 8	10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m.	Listen to the sounds of dugongs, dolphins and penguins!	Kotaro Ichikawa Associate Professor Field Science Education and Research Center	TBD	×
Fri. Aug. 9		Cardboard Crafts: Let's Make Pictures with Scraps			×
Sat. Aug. 10	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Let's Make Fractal Shapes and Have Fun with Shadows!	Hideki Tsuiki Professor Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	×
Sun. Aug. 11		Painting Advisor Day			◎
Mon. Aug. 12		Closed
Tue. Aug. 13		Closed
Wed. Aug. 14		Closed
Thu. Aug. 15		Closed
Fri. Aug. 16		Closed
Sat. Aug. 17		Free Research / Solar Lanterns			◎
Sun. Aug. 18		Summer Festival			◎
Mon. Aug. 19		Kid's Expo			×
Tue. Aug. 20	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	What you Can Learn by Studying Rocks while Camping in Antarctica (tentative title)	Tetsuo Kawakami Professor Graduate School of Science	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	×
Wed. Aug. 21		Thinking With Your Body: Let's Play With Time, Speed, and Distance			×
Thu. Aug. 22	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Can you do it well? Let's master the use of chest compressions and AED using an iPad!	Taku Iwami, Professor Chika Nishiyama, Associate Professor Graduate School of Medicine	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	×
Fri. Aug. 23	1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Good for One, But Bad for the Other?―Thinking About Our Food Supply Systems	Yayoi Kito Senior Lecturer Graduate School of Agriculture	Upper elementary grade students (recommended)	×
Sat. Aug. 24		Programming			◎
Sun. Aug. 25		Make Your Own Insect-opedia!			◎
Sat. Aug. 31		Thinking With Your Body: Let's Play With Dots, Lines, and Surfaces			◎

Click here for past programs

Daily Schedule

The schedule may change depending on the program content.

8:00 a.m.	Going to childcare facility ^*1 free play
9:00 a.m.	Orientation Homework/study/reading time
10:00 a.m.	Academic or experiential program ^*2
12:00 p.m.	Lunch time ^*3
1:30 p.m.	Academic or experiential program ^*2
3:00 p.m.	Snack Time
3:30 p.m.	Free play
5:00 p.m – 7:00 p.m. （extendable to 9:00 p.m.）	Going home

*1 We will confirm the child's name, temperature, and time to go home.

*2 An academic program or an experiential program will be held either in the morning or in the afternoon.
If the program is held in the morning, children will present their experiences and learnings in the afternoon on a worksheet. In addition, children can play with their own creations in the hands-on experience of making things.

*3 Please feel free to bring your own lunch, or If you wish, We will provide frozen bento lunches, so please order in advance.

Safety Initiatives

The facility will be locked at all times during opening hours, and children will be controlled from entering and exiting the facility. We have also introduced a system that notifies parents of entry and exit times in real time.
Three childcare staff will be on-site to supervise children with 15 or fewer children, and four childcare staff will be on hand to supervise children with 16 or more.
Two of the childcare staff will be qualified as after-school child support workers.
There will always be one childcare staff member in each area to supervise your child.
The outside space and play room will be staffed with childcare staff with an emphasis on safety, so we assume that they will only be used at set times.
If your child becomes unwell or an accident occurs, we will promptly contact parents. We also collaborate with nearby medical institutions depending on the situation.
We have prepared manuals in preparation for the occurrence of fires, earthquakes, natural disasters, and intrusion by suspicious persons. We regularly carry out evacuation drills and drills to simulate intrusion by suspicious persons.
Surveillance cameras are installed at a total of 10 locations inside and outside the facility.
The local police station has reinforced patrols around KuSuKu.

Access

Kyoto University Kids’ Community (KuSuKu)
(1F of the Kyoto University Archives building)
15-9 Yoshida Kawahara-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501

Please refrain from coming by car and use public transportation.
On foot, it takes about:
- 10 minutes walk from the university’s main gate
- 7 minutes walk from the Kyoto city bus stop “Kyodai Seimon-mae”
- 10 minutes walk from Demachiyanagi station (Keihan railway)
- 5 minutes walk from Kojinbashi station (Kyoto Bus)

*About pick-up and drop-off
Please have your child picked up and picked up by a guardian.Bicycle parking is located in front of the east entrance.If you are coming by car, please do not park on the public road, but use the parking lot (20 spaces) on the north side of KuSuKu. Please note that the parking lot is only available for temporary parking during pick-up and drop-off, and cannot be used permanently.If your child is in the upper grades and your home is nearby, it is possible for your child to attend the school alone, but please confirm the route to KuSuKu in advance at home.

About the Logo

kusuku

Inspired by the camphor tree, the symbol of Kyoto University, the logo represents the university’s intention for the new childcare facility to be a place that provides a relaxed and alternative style of learning that helps children grow up to be healthy and happy.

Childcare Service Childcare FacilityKyoto University Kids’ Community (KuSuKu)