little toy brush: Kids Plaza Osaka

One of the bigger indoor playgrounds for kids in Osaka city is called Kids Plaza Osaka, suitable for kids from 6 months to 12 years old. It's half-like a science museum and half-like an indoor playground.

Admission per entry charges for unlimited play for the day only apply to children aged 3 and older with various tiered prices. 300 yen for pre-schoolers aged 3 to 6, 600 yen for school students aged 7 to 12. Adults have to pay 1200 yen. All these are available on their website.

There are 5 floors of activities with the 4th and 5th floor being the most crowded. Our 3-year-old was not comfortable with the bigger children on the 2-storey slides and the huge play area was a little too daunting.

Instead, she enjoyed the smaller exhibits like top spinning, percussion instruments, balls, bubbles, etc, which were at a quieter section of the playground, which was more like an interactive museum exhibit. For a person who enjoys science, I truly enjoyed watching the children play at the exhibits because the exhibits' design really made science and engineering really looked fun to learn and meaningful to our daily lives. I am confident that these exhibits contributed to the number of students who choose science and engineering careers eventually. The SG government had been spending lots of money promoting engineering careers and I believe that nobody had thought of simplifying our science centre exhibits into a kids playground for younger kids to enjoy.

The other section which was extremely crowded was a small supermarket section for children to role play cashiers, packers, and customers. Observing their behaviour was an enlightening experience because the older girls were the cashiers who would check the items, scan the barcode, collect the imaginary money and returned change. The only boys who were playing were the little toddlers who were intrigued by plastic models of common supermarket items. The interest in the supermarket cashier is likely linked to the prevalent number of women cashiers working in supermarkets across Japan (actually in SG too) as a social mould.

The other section that was popular with the boys (schooling age) was a simulated train station, platform and train car. In this exhibit, children get to experience what it is like to be on the wheelchair and taking the train. They will sit on a child-sized wheelchair and navigate through the gantry and to and from the train. Personally, I felt that the exhibit is a Japanese pride in their efforts to promote social inclusion. Toddlers are likely too young to understand.

The exhibit that I was attracted to and played (by spinning the wheel for 5 cycles even though my girl had ran off to play with bubbles) was the mechanical water pump. I had always wanted to know how water pumps worked and this exhibit showed all the small details within pipes to pump water with just your hand spinning a wheel. In modern days, pumps are powered by electricity but this centerpiece shows you how you could build one with different shapes of wood, plastic and metal, which is sorely missing from modern education.

My little girl's favourite was the corner with soap and metal rings to make bubbles. Unfortunately she got herself all soapy and also hit other smaller kids with the metal ring because she was too engrossed with swinging the ring to make bubbles. Unfortunately I could only offer an apologetic look and sorry-s.

Other sections that we did not have the time to explore where the infant area for those mothers who need to entertain the younger ones (very considerate design because it's next to the toilets!), cooking studio which had closed, and digital games.

This place is definitely worth a visit for anyone. There is a very big eating area at the 4th floor for the adults to eat and rest while the children go while on the 5th floor. The full day admission tickets also allow re-entry for the day so it will be considerably value-for-money for a whole day's fun for the children. 3 minutes (just need to cross 1 road) from JR loop line Temma station.