Imagine strolling through a forest and coming across a hut supported by four trees 8 meters off the ground. With its triangular roof, stained-glass door panels and timber decking, at first sight it's like something in a fairyland.

This is, however, the latest lofty abode built by Takashi Kobayashi, Japan's pioneer tree-house creator. Completed on June 20, the hut in a valley in Takikawa, Hokkaido, is the fruit of cooperation between Kobayashi and Solaputi Kids Camp, an organization that runs a camping facility there for children with life-threatening diseases.

"There are children who have never played outdoors because they have to stay in hospital or wear breathing or other medical tubes. This tree house is for such children," Kobayashi said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.