KidZania!

Chatting with a fellow 'tag-a-long' mom on a field trip last year, she shared her list of hits and misses she had stumbled upon while in Japan. Hands down, she said, Kidzania was the best place ever! Ever since, it's been at the top of my list of must sees........... and we finally checked it out. I have to agree, it blew me away! If they don't have these in the states, they need to get some. It's like a Children's Museum times 100! Mark laughed, because it looked like a job fair for kids........ but it was so much more than that. Kidzania offers work experience in almost every field you can think of. Your kids take a walk around the city and consider what experiences they would like to try. Then, with their day planner, they sign up for an appointment time (when they can report for their shift), and in small groups they are taught all the details of that job. (Each session is about 30 minutes) We were there from 9:00am to 3:00 in the afternoon.........and they still had a long list they wanted to try. We'll have to go back at least two more times to fit it all in. As we began our walk around the city, Lillian spotted the Beauty Salon and wouldn't budge. This was it! Sign me up! When you arrive the kids are given $50 in 'KidKash' they can use for services or items in the shops. So at the salon you can either work there (and earn money) or you can use your KidKash and pay to have your make-up or nails done. (I took it as a good sign that my kids always wanted the work experience, they never opted to be a customer...;0 Luckily for us Tokyo is a very international city and almost every employee speaks some degree of English. It was very generous of them to teach in both Japanese and English. It seems, at a very young age, they stress the importance of being VERY respectful. And that there is no 'unimportant' task. They take extreme care and pride in every detail of what they do. Here, Lillian is learning to greet her customers with a respectful bow. Then another ten minutes for delicate preparation of the client.....gently draping, cleansing, moisturizing And then the make-up! She was in heaven. ...... Max, across town, never moved passed the building maintenance crew. It worked out that he jumped on this one early.........this was one of the most popular sites in town. This was one of the few options that you couldn't schedule for a later appointment and then leave until your turn. You had to wait in line the whole time. (I don't know if this is meant to discourage the faint at heart because over the course of the 45 minute wait, Max watched about 75% of the kids freeze on the wall and then burst into tears as they had to reach for the top.) To be honest, Mark and I were a little nervous for Max. He is scared to death of heights, and I was surprised he even wanted to try this. But he made it! He didn't hesitate at all!

This was a little less exciting for Tobias. It was like a big teaser...... bright colors, lots of kids in costume, firetrucks, ambulances, ice cream, colorful characters......... but he was too little to do anything besides eat, runaway and get to close to the emergency vehicles that the kid crews traveled in. We did find the toddler room though..... He loves play kitchens and puzzles, so he enjoyed himself safely in there. The rest of the time we kept him busy with toys, ice cream and french fries.
Speaking of Ice Cream! This one wasn't a hard sale......... who doesn't want to work in an ice cream parlor?

While Lillian was making treats, Max was backstage learning magic tricks and how important presentation is when your a Magician. Unfortunately Mark and I were waiting at the wrong theater for his show to start and a disappointed Max found us and wondered why we missed his performance........we were super bummed we didn't see it
:0( We did get to seem him as Security Consultant
(I think.?.....this one was a little vague....he had to gather numbers and submit a report and recommendation...? But this supervisor spoke very little english, so Max looked puzzled most of the time. I told him this was in fact a very good work experience because at least once in your life you will be hired for a job and it will be a little unclear what it is your suppose to do......and you might have a supervisor that is difficult to work with, for many reasons.....whether it be a language barrier or personality conflict, etc... ) Not surprisingly this job had NO wait time.... not a lot of takers...... so it was a good filler when waiting for the 'cooler' jobs to start.

Like Firefighting...
EMT! Go Tubby! (He kind of invited himself into this one) Airplane Crew

They even turn hamburger making into an artform.
Veterinary Medicine Lillian was excited about working in the Hospital Nursery And Max opted for Surgery (He looks pretty darn cute in scrubs ;0)

Tour Guide
and Personal Trainer were a little less popular. .......strange how even in 'kidland' the gym has inconsistent business

They had Fashion Design, which Lillian very much wanted to try....but she found the material selection for the work-ups overwhelming, so she backed out. They also followed this up with a runway show, were you could learn how to 'work it on the catwalk'.........I think this is what she was really after, but the wait for this experience was 120 minutes... go figure...;0)

Lillian did have the chance to create and publish her own 'Anime' comic book...
And Max got to join a race crew...
It was a super packed day! The sessions last six hours, which you think would be plenty of time..........but we'll be back!