Kidzania is FULL ON for parents but my kids absolutely love it here and it’s just the cutest concept (and, lets be serious here, the photos and video opportunities are just priceless.)
Kidzania is a giant interactive, role-playing playcentre based on the idea that children should be able to experience lots of different types of occupations – through play.
Please note that children under 3 won’t be able to take part in the activities at Kidzania. If you have a child under 3 but close to 3 years (old enough to get major FOMO), I recommend splitting up and have one parent take that child around LaLaport Shopping Mall (Kidzania is located inside that shopping mall.) They can play in the arcade, explore the shops and restaurants and/or see a movie at the cinemas.
Scroll to the bottom of this post for suggestions of where to eat before or after a Kidzania session.
So… what is Kidzania?
It’s an amusement park set up so children can try out grown-up jobs. But it’s done sooooo well.
Every single part of Kidzania is taken seriously by all involved. So that makes it feel real!
The other clever element? Real companies sponsor each job section – so the ice-cream company sponsored the ice-cream making section, the courier company sponsors the delivery van section… the petrol station is sponsored by a gas/petrol company… and so on.
So the logos are real. The uniforms are the uniforms of those in those “real” positions.
Children participate in a short ‘training’ and then perform a task. Each activity takes around 30 minutes.
Why is Kidzania so hectic?
I DO recommend it to my readers. But proceed with caution, this is not the place for when Mummies and Daddies are tired, or hungover or are just looking for an easy day. This is all hands on deck kind of fun. (I mean, I feel less tired after a day at Disneyland.)
The reason it feels busy is because of the system set up. Although fair, it does feel like mayhem – a mayhem that the staff feel completely at peace with, it seems.
Is Kidzania all indoors?
It is. It’s actually located on the third floor of shopping mall LaLaport Toyosu. It’s so lovely to visit an amusement park that is all indoors so isn’t weather dependent. (Another indoor amusement park is Sanrio Puroland, which I talk about in my Hello Kitty blog post .)
It is actually very warm inside Kidzania so I recommend putting any big jackets in lockers and actually attending in just t-shirts or other light clothing.
When is the best day to visit Kidzania?
If you and your children don’t speak Japanese I recommend booking Kidzania for Wednesdays as every Wednesday is English day ( all staff speak to children in English.). This is also the case for the Kidzania in Kobe at the Koshien store.
But this does mean that the staff will know the basics in English to help you if your child attends on any other day. But the main instructions will be in Japanese.
As you can imagine, it’s always better to attend on weekdays vs weekends as you’ll miss the school aged children.
How to book tickets for Kidzania?
Kidzania doesn’t accept on the day reservations you need to book in advance online.
It’s annoying to book as they ask you to sign up as a member first ( doesn’t cost money but you need to enter your child’s name and age etc.). Then you can purchase on the day you would like to book ( like I say above – Wednesdays are English days.). You will be asked to choose from the morning session (usually 9am-3pm) or the afternoon session (usually 4pm-7pm)
There are also shorter 3 hour time slots to book for some days of the week but I don’t recommend them at all because … even with the longer time slot the jobs are snapped up so quickly that I can’t imagine how on earth it would be fun with even less time.
So.. how does it all work at Kidzania? How do you choose your jobs?
When you enter Kidzania, each child is given a “job card.” It’s a chart with a line for the job title and a spot for the allocated time.
So.. when you go in and find that first job that your child wants to do you go to the reception point in front of that job section and the staff member will set you a time to come back and start that job ( it may be 5 mins away or an hour or so away.)
The twist though? Once you’re waiting for a job time to begin – you cannot sign up for any additional jobs. Once the first job is complete – you can sign up for a second job.
For this reason, it is worth signing up for the most popular jobs first as once all the spots for that session are full the sessions are closed.
The most popular jobs at Kidzania are:
-any of the plane jobs – pilot, flight attendant etc
-fashion model jobs ( there are only 2 sessions in the morning and the afternoon so it’s easy to miss out.)
-pizza chef, mos burger chef, salad deli chef, sweets shop
-firefighter
-any of the hospital jobs such as maternity nurse, doctors, dentist
-nintendo game developer
What happens when each job at Kidzania is finished?
When the child completes a job, they are paid in Kidzania dollars. That money can then be deposited in the in-house miniature sized Sumitomo bank (to be withdrawn at an atm for the fun of it or saved until your next visit), spent on stickers or small toys at the mini Mitsukoshi department store or spent on customer related activities – for e.g we spent some on the ‘sports club’ so my little girl could take part in a cheerleading class and be the customer in the Shiseido beauty salon and my little guy used his to ride the miniature Hato bus.)
So, in other words, some jobs earn money and a few cost money.
I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to accumulate money unless you’re going to go to Kidzania many times over – as I think we had 9 dollars at the end and it couldn’t even get us a ticket holder strap so I recommend “banking it”, keeping for next time or just keeping it as a souvenir.
The whole place is so beautifully executed – it will blow your mind and make you wish you had thought of it.
What age is best for kids visiting Kidzania?
This is my opinion … but, although Kidzania advertise that they cater for 3-15 year olds… I believe it’s more like 3-10 year olds.
I wouldn’t go for younger than 3 years because the staff need to take the children out of sight for a few moments to get them ready or do some mini training so they need to be comfortable without a parent in the room with them at all times ( it is a short period of time and I am that Mum who pops her head around the corner -but it just wouldn’t work if your child was a bit freaked without having Mum or Dad holding their hand all the time.)
I just recently visited with my kids for the 4th time – this time my eldest is 10 and, although she had fun – she’s almost aged out of it and I think this is the last time she won’t think that she is “too cool” for it all.
What is my favourite part?
Seeing my kids feel so proud of themselves when they complete a task and get a little card certificate and a handful of play cash. I’m also a sucker for the photos – it’s just sooooooo flipping adorable.
I think it’s realistic to expect to take part in 3-4 jobs per child per day. It doesn’t sound like a lot but since each job takes around 30 mins to complete it all works out. We recently went for the morning session – did 4 jobs per child and had lunch at Mos Burger while we waited for job set times and we left (all exhausted) around 2pm – even though our session was until 3 as all the good jobs were all booked and we felt like we’d had our fun.
Why does it make me so happy but also makes me want to drink heavily at the same time?
It’s a mad house. The kids are just so excited. It requires lots of planning and negotiating from Mums and Dads ( not impossible but you need a game plan – ie. book your spot for the most popular jobs first and then fill in the waiting time with jobs that aren’t as popular.)
It is also a difficult place to visit with friends and other families. Especially if your kids are interested in different jobs – you’ll basically have to do completely different things at the other side of the centre. And if you arrive at Kidzania at different times? Pretty much tricky to sync up again.
What should I bring?
A water bottle, full change of clothes for each child (just incase of accidents, spilled food etc), cash for food at the food courts and restaurants (if your kids sign up for pizza or salad making or ice-cream they will get to take-away and eat the food they make.)
You can buy food and drink in there (that kids didn’t make!) – MosBurger have a mini-store as do Pizza-La and a salad/deli store too.
There are also vending machines for drinks at everyday prices.
Don’t bring a stroller inside the centre ( there is lots of stroller parking out the front) unless you absolutely have to. If you have a small baby with you – then I recommend a baby carrier – if you can. Also there are some stairs inside and it’s just mayhem with so many people and literal min-van traffic so it’s hard.
If you only want a stroller for shopping in the department store Lalaport beforehand or afterwards, keep in mind that Lalaport has their own shopping strollers available to borrow – free of charge.
How will I know ahead of time if Kidzania is busy?
The website shows availability when you book but I would avoid Japanese school holidays, national holidays and weekends – if you can.
KIDZANIA TOKYO
江東区豊洲2-4-9ノースポート アーバンドックららぽーと
NORTH PORT URBAN DOCK LALAPORT TOYOSU
2-4-9 TOYOSU, KOTO-KU
WEBSITE
I also really like the shopping at Lalaport (the department store where Kidzania is located) They also have a great food court and fantastic baby changing/feed facilities. For more Lalaport Toyosu details, see here. There is also a big playground in front of the Marina Food Court at LaLaport Toyosu (right near the Toyosu Yurikamome Monorail Station.)
Or if you’re looking for a lunch spot afterwards walk for 10 minutes to Lalaport Toyosu (a huge department store). It has a food court with ramen, curry, hamburger spots, KFC, freshness burger, Ben & Jerrys etc.
My kids love to eat at Aloha Table inside of LaLaport Shopping Mall. It is just two minutes walk from Team Lab Planets and within the same shopping mall as Kidzania ( there’s also a big playground in between) is LaLaport Shopping Mall which contains “Aloha Table” – one of my kids’ favourite spots for lunch or dinner. They love the kids menu – mostly the pancakes with the chocolate pen for decorating.All kids’ meals come with a small toy and, if it’s your birthday the staff will come out and sing. Aloha Table is in an annex section (on the ground floor of the LaLaport Toyosu 3 building) of the department store. To get there easily from the main section of the shopping mall, walk to Zara on the 2nd floor of the main building, use the undercover walkway and then walk through the bookshop to the downward escalators to the ground floor.
This restaurant accepts most major credit cards, is entirely non-smoking and also has outdoor seating. They also have space for strollers. It is possible to make a reservation but we have always just walked in.
The full Aloha Table menu is here.
ALOHA TABLE, TOYOSU
豊洲2-2-1 アーバンドックららぽーと豊洲3 1F
GROUND FLOOR, URBAN DOCK LALAPORT TOYOSU 3, 2-2-1 TOYOSU
OPEN EVERYDAY 11AM-1oPM
Also, to make an even more full day of your time at Kidzania, you can also visit the Team Lab Planets exhibit – 10 minutes walk away.
Just as FYI, there is another Kidzania in Kobe (down near Osaka.) For Kobe with kids suggestions, see here.
