Lightweight soft toys made of colorful fabrics are not only fun for small children to play with, but they are safe as well. They won't break even though children throw them around and won't hurt if they hit them.
The only problem with fabric toys is that they are mostly handmade and are more expensive than mass-produced plastic ones. For instance, a picture book made of cloth can cost nearly 10,000 yen at stores.
At a community center in Yokohama's Tsuzuki Ward, though, anyone can borrow these fabric toys from its "toy library" -- including picture books whose characters can be removed from one page and stuck on others, real-looking fruits that can be cut or peeled with a toy knife, and "apron theaters" to encourage storytelling using the many items in their pockets.