It is important to make playgrounds for all seasons especially winter in cold and snowy regions. Two questionnaire surveys were carried out to make clear some differences in children's outdoor playing activities in summer and winter.
The major findings are as follows:
1) The results showed a sharp decrease in the frequency of outdoor play and use of playgrounds in winter.
2) The children were divided into four groups by the frequency of outdoor play and their will to play;the first group was active with high frequency, the second was passive with high frequency, the third was active with low frequency and the forth was passive with low frequency.
3) The main playing space in summer was children' parks but in winter they were spaces around houses. The reason is supposed to be snow fall and cold climate.
4) Stemming from the results, we can point out the importance of making more attractive playgrounds and the control of snow.

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The purpose of this thesis is to study the relationship between changes in the social systems and in the spatial form of the urban open space in the transition era from Edo to Tokyo. Since the social estate system was the fundamental system of Edo society, each social estate group had its own systems and organizations to solve social problems, such as security or fire defense. The urban space of Edo which was controlled through each social estate group tended to manifest itself in separated and distinctive space. But a number of open spaces in Edo, such as Oukan, Hirokoji, Hasizume, Hiyokechi, Keidai, were not suitable to this system and spatial form.Such open spaces were used and effectively controlled by all social groups.In this thesis, I focus particularly on the discriminated estate groups, including Goumune and Hinin. They lived and earned their living in Edo's open spaces and played an important role in Bakufu's open space security system. The Meiji government abolished the discriminated estate groups in 1872. This abolishment meant the collapse of the social system of Edo which was constituted by the social estate structure. At this point, for the first time in Japanese history, the police and fire defense systems had jurisdiction over the entire urban open space. These new systems demanded a unified and accessible open space in Tokyo. The government removed all the obstacles on the streets like Kido, Jisinbanya, Kidobanya, Hiningoya. The roads and bridges were widened and flatted. This open space form created a spatial network which allowded city-wide access for police and fire defense systems. This thesis concludes with an analysis of the reciprocity between the change of the social systems and the transformation of the urban open space shape.

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The object of this study is to survey what buried seeds are found in the soil under a Quercus serrata forest and when they will germinate after they are placed in a sunny place. Soil samples for the examination were collected under a Quercus serrata forest in Sakuragaoka Park, Tama city, Tokyo on June 18, 1991. The examination was carried out in an open-air, sunny place from June 1991 to July 1992.
The following are what we found;
1. Seedling emergence from seed bank
(1) The number of germinated seedlings had three seasonal peaks; just after start of the examination, the autumn and the next spring. Within five weeks after start of the examination, the number of seedlings reached about 50% of the total, about 18% in the autumn and about 13% in the next spring.
(2) Weeds usually found on arable land dominated in the germinated seedlings, followed by species grown in managed Quercus serrata forests (equal to grass-lands or forest-edges), and those in no-managed Quercus serrata forests were a only few.
(3) The time of emergence differed with species.
(4) Marked differences both in species and the number were observed in the buried seeds contained in the soil samples collected at places close to one another in the same forest stand.
2. Application to forest management
We have found the seed bank under the present Quercus serrata forest contains species grown in managed Quercus serrata forests which have potential of capability to contribute to scenic attraction of the Quercus serrata forest in the Park.

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