The "break even" visit to Kids Plaza Osaka

I know you are probably so tired of seeing our visits to Kids Plaza Osaka.  But, here is the thing...the girls love it, it's two train stops away, we are still discovering a few new things (it's a five story building) and I bought a pass to it - today marked the break even visit.  :)  So any time we go after this visit is kind of free...I love that point.  This is our fourth visit and today we still did something we haven't been able to do before.

When we arrived, we realized this month marks the 15th Anniversary of Kids Plaza Osaka.  15 years - you wouldn't suspect that from the cleanliness of the building.

I don't think I've shared this with you, but another great thing about this place is the staff.  I can explain it to you, but it's again one of those things to see.  First of all - the place has a staff and you see them AND they want to play with your kids.  They, of course, are also watching out for things but for example:

*  You go to the "grocery store" and someone is there to make sure the kids are able to zap their purchases on the register and print their receipt (a real receipt, every time they check out!)

* You go to the restaurant section and if I'm paying attention to one of my girls, one of the staff sits and becomes my other girl's customer at the restaurant

*  At the "post office" there is a staff member passing out mail for the kids to deliver, making sure they get a letter to place in each mailbox in their stack of mail to deliver.

This my friends, is just in like 10 feet of the place.

*  If you go in the toddler area, there is always someone there kind of cleaning up and putting things away and getting down and playing with the kids too.

*  Upstairs, in the music and try on clothes area there are, I'd say at least 2 staff there to help.

Everywhere you go, there is a helpful staff member there.  They seem to all love kids and it just is something unique about the experience.  Employing people is valued differently here.  By different, I think I mean more than profitability.

I wanted to show you Grace steering a ball through a hoop in the ceiling in the discovery area.  It pushed up with air:

 In the bubble area today one of the staff members taught us how be able to reach through the bubble wall!

Here is the new thing we experienced today.  I always see this musical instrument on the wall with a fence around it.  Today, they got it out and played it and passed instruments out to the kids.  There are more kids around this activity, but somehow I got to avoid them with the camera.

They have a section with rooms from around the world.  The American section has football and you can try on some helmets and shoulder pads too.  Here is Grace throwing the football:

They also have a section where children can experience what it maybe like if they were handicapped.  In this section the girls took turns in a wheelchair and then riding the train with it.  There were two employees that made sure they did everything just right, Grace pushed it through the ticket turnstile, on to the train (this is her backing her back out of the train car and back on to the "train station" ramp.

Today, one of the ladies came up to me and told me she has noticed we come every week and wanted to thank me for coming so often and enjoying the place.  I was truly at a loss for words, but I did stumble something out.  After she walked away, I almost cried.  And then I went and found her again to tell her how much the girls and I enjoy coming to Kids Plaza.

Pictures don't do the climbing area justice.  This is in the center of the building and you can actually use the stairs and ramps in this area to go up and down between levels.  These videos are from both sides of it.