2026 National Echigo Hillside Park Water Play Plaza (国営越後丘陵公園 水遊び広場) Full-Day Course

The National Echigo Hillside Park Water Play Plaza (国営越後丘陵公園 水遊び広場) in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, is a water-play area officially announced to open, as the fiscal 2026 plan, from Saturday, July 4 to Sunday, September 13, from 9:30 to 16:45. It has 12 kinds of water play equipment, including a water machine gun, a human-powered waterwheel, a water tunnel, a water dome, water steps, and a water tree, and the water is a shallow 10 to 20 cm, so even toddlers who have just started walking can go and play on their own feet. Shade tents are provided, so you can spend time here even under strong midsummer sun by taking breaks. Only the water-contact pond has water-quality management equivalent to a swimming pool, and children wearing swim diapers may enter it, which is another welcome point. Use of the Water Play Plaza itself is free, but a separate park admission fee is required. Begin the day at the Hall of Flowers and Greenery (花と緑の館), the park's gateway. Pick up a park map and check the day's highlights and rest spots. In the morning, enjoy the scent of summer roses at the Fragrant Rose Garden (香りのばら園), then look for creatures in the rice paddies and coppice woods at the Echigo Satoyama Field Museum (越後の里山フィールドミュージアム). In the afternoon, it is finally time for the Water Play Plaza. The fountains and other features stop at 16:30, so if you use that as your cue to get out and change, you can close the day with time to spare. Walk slowly through the vast grounds, and finish by getting thoroughly soaked. It is an outing course that fills an entire summer-holiday day, in a way that suits Nagaoka.