Osaka Rinku Town Premium Outlet Mall

The Premium Outlet Mall is popular with tourists who arrive in bus loads. The main access modes are train (nearby JR and Nankai Railways Rinku Town) or by 100 yen 30-min frequency shuttle bus from Kaisai Airport. The shuttle bus pick up point is at a rather distant end of the airport at the bus terminal. It can be quite difficult to locate if there is no queue in sight. The shuttle bus is a large coach that allows tourists to load their large suitcases in the trunk.

When travelling with a younger one, every destination needs to have a playground as a form of a bribe to reward good behaviour while the adults go shopping. In the premium outlet mall, we found a small play area within the Lego outlet that sells retail lego sets at 30% discount.

There is an outdoor playground near to starbucks, which is a little more difficult to locate. We would not have known where it was had it not been for the shuttle bus driving past it.

Satisfied look after playing

Read about my review on Seacle Pleasure Town, next to Premium Outlet Mall, which boasts a large indoor playground for more play time. 

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.

Osaka Grand Front Bornelund Kid-O-Kid

Situated on the 3rd floor of the Osaka Grant Front just outside JR Osaka Station, Kid-O-Kid is a playground by Bornelund - a maker of educational toys. The marketing concept was to attract the parents and children to the playground to try out their range of toys and then (hopefully) purchasing a set home later. Their designs were also very attractive in terms of colour, shape, concept (animals are little toddlers' favourites) and the mechanics behind it develop motor and fine motor skills, making the playground suitable for babies aged 6 months to 12 years old.

Entry charges were relatively high for per minute charges. 600 yen for 30 minutes, 100 yen for every subsequent 10 minutes, 500 yen per adult entry. 1-day pass is 1,700 yen for 1 child and 1 adult, which was still relatively high, but when you read more into the table, they also had a monthly pass which was more cost effective at 4,400 yen for the size of the playground.  

大阪府大阪市北区大深町3番1号 グランフロント大阪 ナレッジキャピタル 3階
JR大阪駅 ／ 地下鉄 御堂筋線 梅田駅 ／ 阪急・阪神 梅田駅

Universal Studios Japan

We really have to give credit to the Japanese when they design public amenities because every need is taken care of. The path to USJ is flanked by a row of shops and restaurants called Universal City Walk by Kintetsu (housing the takoyaki museum). To the left, a huge area is under construction, possibly another hotel of more shops. There are already 2 hotels outside USJ and the prices are steep.

The entrance showed the usual grandeur of universal studios and the music that welcomes you to the land of happiness, back to the future style. The obligatory Japanese lady smiles and bows at every visitor at the entrance with a Minnie mouse ears hair band, beginning your journey even before you reach the ticketing counter.

The ticket counter have signs in English and Japanese, and while they try to cater for tourists, I would say that in they still remain very Japanese. It's easy to buy tickets and signs are bilingual. The only difficulty one may face is trying to figure out whether the one-day ticket entitles a re-entry for a lunch break and restaurants outside the park, the answer is no, and these instructions were in Japanese.

The park had changed a lot from my last visit 5 years ago. Notably, the number of F&B had been tremendously increased. The number of themed shops, though smaller, had also increased. These themed shops are at every attraction's entrance and exit, capitalising on the long queues for the bored customer's mind to want to take a look after their ride because they would have been sufficiently engaged by then - blankly staring at the flow of customers to the shop, feeling the ride was amazing, or simply having to just keep a memorabilia because of the anticipation built up during the X-hours long queue. Anyone interested in marketing or consumer behaviour would definitely pick up a few tricks.

With a toddler in tow proved a different sight seeing experience. She was scared of the screams from the roller coaster, a boat making a big splash from a 4-storey inclined descent, mascot dinosaur from the movie Jaws, and the sheer crowd.

Her haven was actually a section of the park with a sesame street themed wonderland designed for children 7 and under - Elmo's Imagination Playland. Our introvert didn't like the crowd outdoors, so we gave the carousel and mini car ride (meant for children aged 3 to 5) a miss. She found her space in the indoor area where there were large spaces with individual play items to keep every little one occupied without feeling threatened, which was an enlightening design. These items were very simple - balloons, blocks, balls. Three types of objects, three areas of play.

The ball area attracted our girl a lot because they had a very interesting sink that takes in balls and spit them out through the shower head. It was cookie monster having a bath!

Unfortunately we didn't get to taste fantastic food because cafes and restaurants either had long queues or no queue. The cafe at the indoor area had no queue hence the food was understandable.

Overall it was not worth the money for us but it was an enlightening experience for me to learn more about how Japanese businesses design products or services to capture the market of the young parents and children. Eventually, when they grow up, they will return to these places they had good memories of. I would never have been able to experience and appreciate these designs had it not been for travelling with our girl, who was 3 years old when we ventured on this USJ excursion. I wouldn't go back again until she is older because of the high entry cost, but if I were a resident, I would buy an annual pass and visit it every week!

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.

Access Map 

Angklong

Ball race - if only I had this to visualise when learning Physics in school about gravitational potential energy

Bicycle dynamo converting mechanical to magnetic energy

Different notes at different spots - I still can't figure the science behind this! 

a day of self discovery

Yaya adapted to her school within a week. She walks to her classroom by herself, doesn't even say bye bye to me in the morning! In the evening, she will obediently go home with me. She is in the childcare for 11 hours, mondays to fridays. I ferry her to and fro everyday as well. So far she has only been out of school for one day because of a diarrhoea. The school wash the kids' hands every hour, so I would say I had a relatively stress-free life. (stress = yaya sick + i need to take leave)

Every night we repeat the same routine. Shower, eat dinner, sit around and watch us go about our household chores, then we will give her a milk bottle, leave her in her room, shut the door, and she will sleep. As yaya is now in childcare, as opposed to previously being at home, I am now able to focus better at work. When yaya was at home, she slept late, which made me more tired in the day. Now she sleeps by 9 pm, so I get more rest. So I am an advocate for childcare lol...

As she has been very obedient with her sleep routine, I had been able to do more reading at night. I realised that I had been a little outdated in terms of technology. Recently I had been reading up on google analytics and RSS feeds as I cannot understand the terms my users use lol. She knows google analytics and RSS feeds more than me, I felt that I had to keep up. I was also reading up on databases. In the past, I relied a lot on my DBA to tell me what I need to know, now I don't have that luxury, my DBA is a DBA, database administrator, not a database designer, not a database architect, not anything else, just an admistrator who executes scripts, and day to day operational tasks.

It was only after 3 months, did I manage to convince the infra guy to upgrade my database. 3 months ago, I complained that the memory usage is >70% and requires upgrade. He said it's no cause for concern, and it's due to settings. Fine, I  let him change his settings, he insisted that we must monitor for 3 months, fine, I can wait, the moment 3 months was up, I asked him, so is it more than 80% now? He said, close, not yet 80%.

Work wise, more work, that's something expected. But what's new? Being told that I can still do my own work in my project's user requirements gathering sessions. I was quite pissed off when I heard that, but I am quite sure he wasn't thinking, as he is prone of that. It started with a very harmless question from my supervisor:

Him: How's your work now?

Me: Tiring. I spend an average of 2 half days every week on the user requirements gathering for the xxx project for the past 3 months.

Him: But you can still do your own work when you are in the meeting right?

Me: I wish! Not one time did I ever have that luxury, every meeting my user and vendor are arguing over the scope.

Him: Then what do you need to do?

Me: Decide what is to be done.

That was one week ago. This morning, one of my bosses asked me what type of work I do for my projects. I never really thought about it because my supervisor calls it operational issues, but he drilled down further to the specifics, that was when I realised that everyday I am always arguing with people because I was deciding what should and should not be done. For me, it is a very subconscious activity, I can easily tell people yes or no, to the extent where I feel that I am hired just to argue with people, but that's basically what I had been doing in my previous job as well, which I didn't realise, because it was so natural that I didn't know that I was making decisions.

Another point brought up this morning was that my bosses were talking about themselves "trivialising" work, e.g. saying a certain task is simple, or can be done very quickly. It never occured to me that they were "trivialising", because I saw it as not paying attention to what's going on.

Once in a while, conversations like these make me discover myself.

what yaya does at 16 months

I am always observing how yaya learns. I take note of how she learns and then use the same method to teach her the things I want her to learn. So she is learning faster and faster each time. She only took a few hours to learn how to press the play, stop, forward, volume buttons for music on the iphone, she knows where to get the ring tone, and shewill press them one after another, line after line, to listen to the different tones in amusement, she also learnt how to drink from the straw after possibly 5 tries. I used the normal straw from NTUC, 1 packet 60 cents, because I couldn't be bothered to buy those kids straws because it wasn't practical at all, I won't get such straws when I am eating out. The first few times was hilarious, she choked, face turned red, and looked frustrated.

Recently, even though she has been kept at home, she learnt how to turn her body 360 degrees, and she was tipsy after that. She definitely felt what it was to be giddy, and was very amused. She kept spinning and laughing and I kept laughing till I forgot about taking a video. She also looks for objects to step on, likes to feed herself with her hands, walk backwards, run with both her hands facing backwards, repeat after words she knows, nod or shake her head to answer you, and point to the object she wants you to get for her. After her diaper change, I will hand her the diaper, and she will walk to the dustin in the kitchen, throw it in, and walk out. She knows the kitchen boundaries when the hubby is cooking, she can only stand at the door.

Most importantly, she doesn't put everything in her mouth. She only takes food from people she knows, and dirt, chilli seeds, garlic skin, hair, etc, that she picks up from the floor will be dutifully handed over to me.

However, she is very demanding, just like me. lol... I need to always teach her new things to do to keep her occupied because she is a perfectionist who will keep practising until she always gets it right. After that she will be bored and wants to try something else. If it's something too tough for her to master, she will scream at me and throw her temper, so restraining that side of her requires the violent side of me. So that's the trick I use to teach her all the antics she has now, and also leave her alone to practice so that I have time to do other work. She hasn't started talking, but her 3 bodily hand signs are sufficient to get her fed.