As our society continues to urbanize, it is becoming increasingly difficult for children to be children. Long gone are the days when they were free to get muddy without being told off by adults, or to run about without the threat of speeding cars. In the concrete jungle in which more kids grow up these days, there is hardly room to allow for such childhood adventures.

Even more worrying, educators say that some children today lack such basic skills as the ability to turn on a faucet they never learn the mechanics of what older generations take for granted because more and more restrooms have automatic no-touch sinks. Understanding what death is, not through the simulated images children are exposed to in gory movies and computer games, is beyond children's reach as well, as extended families and community networks have become less common.

Two facilities for preschool-age children in the outskirts of Tokyo, however, are putting real-world experience first. At Asaka Doronko Nursery School ( www.doronko.biz ) in the city of Asaka, Saitama Prefecture, kids can get muddy all they want. Children aged several months through 5 run about the facility, barefoot, with dirt all over their bodies and clothes.