Kidzania!

This weekend was absolutely a busy one. After our big day yesterday with Isaac at the Imperial Palace we had another day planned in Tokyo. This time it was to a place called Kidzania. Before we got to Japan our friend Brittany was invited by a Japanese coworker and she invited us along as well. I didn't really know what to expect but I was open to seeing what it was. They have two times you can go and we were signed up for the 9am time. It was in a mall a little more than an hour away and there is supposed to be a long line to get in so we headed to the train at a bright and early 6:25am. We missed our first train thanks to 3 kids and life at 6:30am but we got on not long after we thought. We ended up taking 3 trains to get there and it was a short walk from the train station. After what seemed like forever but only ended up being about an hour and a half or so we made it!

 

We stood in a long line that moved pretty quickly and walked in to a kids workplace wonderland. Long story short Kidzania is a kid city with everything from a bank, to a fire station to a frozen food processing plant, to a movie theatre to an interior design studio. The kids get a time card, they pick what they would like to be and go around to each "job" and work for kidzania money and can buy things at the end of the day with their earned money from the department store. Parents are not allowed to participate in any activities, actually parents aren't even allowed in any of the kid buildings. It's a completely run kid city with the Japanese trainers

 

 

 

When you check in they give each child 50 kidzania dollars and so the first place we were headed was the bank to deposit his money. When we arrived at the bank I checked the New Year gift they gave the children and it turns our it was an additional 10 dollars. Logan had a hard time having to do it all himself. He had never set up a bank account before haha so he kept leaving the counter and telling me to come help him or that he did it. Eventually he set up his account, got his "debit" card (yes they have an ATM for him to get his 60 dollars out of...so cute right?!) and ran out to show me

 

 

All Logan wanted to do was be a firefighter, I mean c'mon are we really surprised?, so that was our first stop. They trained with the Japanese firefighter leads and then went off to extinguish a fire in a nearby building in Kidzania. They even had a fire truck that drove through the building to the fire around the corner. Some activities were in English but since we didn't go on an English speaking day most were in Japanese and Logan got to learn a little in both languages.

 

 

After he extinguished the fire he was so proud of himself but he basically decided that he was done for the day and used the excuse that his dad wasn't there so he didn't want him to miss anything. I am not sure if that is really why but I went with it. I tried to get him to try more things and he would start them and then quit haha. The first thing we tried was EMT. That ended horribly since he had already decided he didn't want to do it and then the first training area was upstairs and the parent viewing area was downstairs. By the time he got downstairs to the parent viewing room to train he was hysterically crying. I gave him a pep talk and he decided he would train as long as he didn't have to wear the uniform so we tried that for a (very) short while and then he decided that we should go buy a camera he saw on the way in at the gift shop and just take pictures.

 

 

He needed a break so we spent our time taking selfies and meeting the characters

 

 

After a break we tried to do the hip hop dance class. That was hilarious to watch but also ended in him quitting. He was all for the class at first because it involved him dancing in front of the mirror but he refused to do the dance and instead wanted to kick and flip in the mirror. It was a very organized class so that didn't fly. We went and watched the kid band perform and watch the cars drive around instead.

 

 

 

 

Since Logan only did one full job he only earned 20 dollars  and spent 5 doing the hip hop class that he quit (and I'm not sure how he earned that much because he was only supposed to earn 10) but since he wanted a full shopping experience I took his other 60 our of the bank and sent him on his way to the store that once again I wasn't allowed in. He bought an overpriced pumpkin and was super excited (I didn't get a picture because he was very protective over it and insisted it was a secret)

 

 

and of course here is a picture of those cute miniature cameras

 

 

Kidzania was fun but I think I would recommend it for kids around 5 and up. Maybe we will try again when Isaac can go with us and see if that makes a difference. After our shift was up we headed to eat in the mall food court and then to let the kids run around and take some pictures while we relaxed with the amazing view

 

 

 

After half an hour or so we headed to the train to start the trek home. On the first train after trying to stay awake as long as he could he fell asleep 2 stops before we got off. That ended in me holding him for more than an hour off and on 3 more trains!

 

 

 He stayed asleep just about the entire way home. After 15 hours and 7 trains Isaac knew I was exhausted and asked me to let him know when we were outside and he would come out to get Logan. Of course now that I didn't have to carry him he woke up and walked himself inside (seriously?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?How do the dads always luck out?) It was a super fun day regardless and The train ride home left me with some pretty things to make holding a sleeping 40 pound 3 year old a little easier. I'll leave you with those as I finally decompress from this crazy first two weeks in Japan. Hope you all had as good of a weekend as I did!