Osaka Rinku Town Seacle Club Yu Kids

Just one train station away from Osaka Kansai Airport is Rinku Town (accessible by both JR and Nankai Railways as these two stops share the same train platform). It consists of mainly two shopping areas -- Seacle and Premium Outlet Mall -- for tourists and lots of residencial areas for locals.

Seacle is a small outfit with a popular discount supermarket and 100 yen shop on the first floor and a large indoor playground operated by Yu Kids on the second floor near the entrance which is nearest the train station. There is also another playground on the way to Seacle's entrance which looked like a huge amusement park but the entrance fees were expensive and did not look suitable for toddlers. There is also an economical food court in the main building and restaurants (Ootoya, Saizeriya and many others) in the annex building. Other shops include economical children and adult clothing, which are usually below 2000 yen per piece.

Opposite Seacle is the Premium Outlet Mall with many popular american brands, such as GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. There are also other more global Japanese brands selling at rather "high end" prices.

The good thing about shopping in Japan is that there is usually somewhere to entertain children. I suspect this is partly because many housewives visit these shopping haunts with their children when their husbands are working.

Lots of sitting space for parents

All children love the ball pit

This slide is very popular with the rowdier children

This is our little girl's favourite. She started riding this when we first visited at 2 years old.

For more information on the shops available: Seacle Shop List

Read about my review on Premium Outlet Mall.

Children Anpanman JR Shikoku train

Anpanman is a very popular comic character among japanese children. Every imaginable product is available in Anpanman design. Biscuits, drinks, tooth brush, utensils, socks, shoes, bags, face masks, bibs, toys, etc. The creator Takashi Yanase passed away in Oct 2013 at the age of 94. His hometown was in Shikoku, Kochi prefecture.

For the tourists, Shikoku has four prefectures and is the smallest main land of Japan. The area is easily accessible via bullet trains and JR train lines with JR pass. The train stations instructions and sign boards are all in Japanese in the sparse-populated suburbs and train station masters speak with a slightly heavier Japanese accent. Nonetheless, it is worth an adventuous visit to the tourist populated towns to see an extremely quiet side of Japan if you are bored with the bustling cities.

Train interiors are decorated with Anpanman stickers and figurines for a partial section of a carriage next to the "green car" (a type of reserved section). There are fixed train timings to book if you would like to board one of these trains. The train we boarded was a 9 am train from Niihama (the quietest town we had every visited in Japan) to Okayama (the interchange to change to bullet train to head back to Osaka).

Rubber stamp machine for children to collect stamps in their Stamp Rally booklet
from different stations and trains across Shikoku.