NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/3.5, ISO 3200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Yeah, That'll Do

Continuing with the story about our visit to KidZania in Nishinomiya, Japan the other day, where Anthony started his play by working as a gas-station attendant and then got some banking done before searching for his next job.

It turns out that he got lucky, because as he was showing interest in a construction job, the foreman said that a job was about to start and that they had room for one more, so he didn't have to wait at all.

(Unfortunately, the uniform color is that blinding, pure orange that I have such trouble with, as I discussed in the middle of the first KidZania post. I don't doubt that a skilled photographer could handle this, but I ended up with all kinds of shades of yellow mixed in. Sigh.)

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Minor Uniform Adjustment
( I just love his face in this one )

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Heading Off to Work
giving Mommy a (slightly apprehensive, “well, here I go!”) smile

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Wide Range of Talent

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Crane (Left) And Partially-Built Tower (Right)

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Two “Caution: Construction” Signs
(one at white arrow is real; at left arrow is play)

The 10 kids went to the back of the construction zone for some instruction, and to be divided into four groups. After a while, Anthony and some other kids left the construction zone and entered the city, going where I had no idea. I followed....

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Business Trip?

Turns out that they were moving to the second-story level of the construction zone, via some stairs near the flight-attendant academy. Whatever Anthony's job was involved an extra safety harness and tether....

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Equipment Instruction

I was happy when we got home to show Anthony photos of workers on a crane wearing the same safety harness.

Anyway, while this was going on, a group down below was working on prepping the top of the tower for installation....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4500 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Tip Top of the Tower

The crane had already moved the top half of the tower tip from its position in the square box to on top of the hexagonal part, and now the kids were securing it together. The crane was operated by a couple of kids from a console on the second level near Anthony, and the two sets of kids (those operating the crane and those at the business end) communicated with hastily-learned voice and hand commands identical to what you'd hear at a Japanese construction site.

Meanwhile, another group of kids was at work constructing a bridge that leads to the base of the tower....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/3.5, ISO 4500 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Moving the Keystone Pieces Into Place
of a segmented arch bridge

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Watching The Cranework

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Hoisting Up the Tower Tip

At this point Anthony's group had to call out instructions to the kids operating the crane, to position the top just above its mount, then let it down. The kids then rotated the tip to lock it into position on the base of the tower.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/3.2, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Final Adjustments

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tongue sticking out,
Releasing the Hoist

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Final Inspection

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Putting Safety Equipment Away

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meanwhile, down below...
Bridge Load-Bearing Structural Test

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Getting Ready To Flip the Switch
on the lights running up the tower and into the just-installed tip

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/3.2, ISO 1800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Getting Set Up for a Group Photo

All the kids then got on the bridge, and they snapped a photo, after which the kids lined up to receive their pay. We were told to stop by after an hour, and they'd have free copies for the kids, and indeed they did.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4, ISO 2000 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Kid Banking, Grown-Up Style

Continuing with the story about our visit to KidZania in Nishinomiya, Japan the other day, where Anthony started his play by working as a gas-station attendant. After working at the gas station, he wanted to be on the opposite end of the experience, as a driver. To drive in KidZania involves renting a car, but to do that you have to have money (which he now did, thanks to his gas-station pay) and a driver license, which he did not have.

To get a driver license, you have to attend driving school (which itself has a cost), but he found the school booked up solid for a while, so he decided to take the time to get some banking done.

The KidZania banking experience is exceedingly realistic.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 4500 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Waiting For a Teller

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 2800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Finally His Turn
teller presents dish for the customer to place paperwork or whatnot

There's not a single thing in the picture above that gives it away as fake. Every detail of everything you see in the picture above (and the two below), including the teller mannerisms and even facial expressions, is 100% authentic. If I were to see these pictures out of context, I wouldn't believe they're fake (although unlike the kids, I wouldn't think the stack of cash behind the glass is real.... I'd think it's some sort of promotional display). Without question this was the most realistic experience of the day.

The bank, by the way – Sumitomo Mitsui – has its roots back to 1683. Fumie's had an account there since she was a kid (though not at the KidZania branch ). According to Wikipedia, it's the 8th largest bank in the world.

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Filling Out a Form
or something

When we arrived at KidZania, Anthony received a traveler's check for 50 KidZo (“KidZo” being the monetary unit in KidZania). Here at the bank, he opened an account in his name and deposited it, receiving a wallet and an ATM card. When I was a kid you got a toaster or some steak knives when you opened a bank account; KidZania seems to be more practical.

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Waiting

Once he got out, he wanted his money as cash, not realizing that he could have gotten it from the teller. So, ATM card in hand, off to get some cash....

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Real ATM
with kid-friendly programming and a booster step

The ATM was quite real, but the software was highly customized for KidZania. All the writing was at the first-grade level (all kanji had furigana), and the transactions were limited to withdrawals and balance inquiries. Also, when entering the PIN, any four digits will do .

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4, ISO 1400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Anthony's Account Options
that's his name on the second line of text, in blue

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Cash, Baby!

Flush with cash, he was then off on his next adventure...

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Awaiting His Turn
for his first “job” at KidZania

In a previous post I wrote all about KidZania in Kobe, Japan, but didn't mention anything about Anthony's experiences there because I thought I'd save them for a second post. However, being the photo-happy papa I am, this post ended up getting filled after just his first job!

As I mentioned in that previous post, Anthony had one job he really wanted to do, so we went directly there and got in line. Each session lasts about 15 minutes; and he'd have to wait during the first session, and would finally get to “work” during the second.

While waiting, he and the other three boys were suited up in their uniforms, including the hygienic hair-net under their uniform headgear...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Perhaps a Bit Apprehensive?
or maybe just bored?

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Interested In What's Going On
with the first session

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But Yeah, a bit Apprehensive

Finally, it was his turn..... to work at a gas station!

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Initial Explanation

Idemitu, having been around since 1911, is perhaps the most famous gas station chain in Japan.

The lady droned on and on. After what must have been an excruciatingly long eight minutes of blather, their first customer arrived...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Keep Coming... This Way

This motioning to continue forward, accompanied by a very thick Japanization of “Alright, alright...” is a standard part of the culture, used anywhere vehicles are being directed (gas stations, loading docks, helping someone back into a parking spot, etc.). It's also part of every kid's play whenever the play involves this kind of vehicle direction, real or imagined.

And so with that, his “job” got under its realistic way.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 135 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Working on the Windshield

Until recently there were only full-service stations, and still, most are. They are very full service.

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Shining up the Bumper

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Other Side, Too

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Back On the Right
just in case he'd missed a spot

Once all the fullness has been serviced and payment rendered, everyone lines up to bow farewell to the customer.

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Getting Ready to Depart

Another customer came in, this time a kid in a rental car, and Anthony was on gas-filling duty...

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Filling'er Up

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Concentration

Whoever built KidZania did not keep parents in mind when designing the layout... it was often hard to see him, and there was nowhere to sit (and often nowhere to stand). Only kids were allowed into the “businesses”, which is great, but a little extra room for the parents would have been nice.

And, while I'm at it, a lot better lighting for the photographer-parent would have been wonderful. Maybe they keep the lighting so horrible so that they can sell the shots that wandering staff take, print, and put up on racks with a $10/each price tag?

Anyway, I don't know where the other pair of boys were while this customer was in, because the buffing went neglected until Anthony noticed and stepped up.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Tools of the Trade
( As for me, I seem to have left my ability to focus at home )

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Here We Go Again...

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Then on the Right

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Windshield One More Time

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Grill

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Final Touches

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“Thank You For Your Patronage” Bow

And that was it for his first job. He received =Z8 for his efforts.

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Lots of New Growth

The trees outside our balcony have finally pushed up high enough to start blocking our second-floor view, making it more and more difficult to wave bye to Anthony as he heads off to school.

I took the shot above this morning, then returned when it started raining in the afternoon...

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My Eye Level

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Thirsty, Growing Trees

The pictures seem really muddy, though. Not sure why.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 — full exif
Open Wide
dental patient in a plastic-like stupor

We took Anthony to KidZania yesterday, in Nishinomiya (near Kobe, about an hour and a half drive south from Kyoto). It's best described as “Vocational School meets Disneyland”... it's a place where kids get to pretend to be all kinds of things. The picture above is from the dental clinic, of course.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4, ISO 4000 — full exif
Auto Shop

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Firefighters

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Getting Ready to Tackle the Blaze

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Dousing the Fire

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EMT Attends a Patient

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Changing a Tire

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TV News

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Food Prep

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Maternity Ward

KidZania is a two-story indoor area filled with more than 70 different “businesses” where the kids can participate as an employee or customer. They can move from business to business, with each event taking from 15 to 30 minutes, although, like Disneyland, much time is spent waiting your turn.

If they participate as an employee, they're paid (in KidZo monetary units), and if they participate as a customer, they must pay. The terms for each “business” are displayed out front... how much pay they'll get for participating, or how much it'll cost to participate.

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A KidZania “Street”

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Electronics Repair
the lady at right is holding a description of a fuse

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Armored Transport

All the businesses mimic in many ways their real-life sponsors. Anyone in a Japanese city will immediately recognize the uniforms of the kids above as that of ALSOK (the Japan equivalent of “Brinks” in the US). “Midori” in the photo above that is a well-known big-chain electronics store.

(Those familiar with Japan may look at the Autobacs sign in the second picture and note, correctly, that Autobacs' sign is orange, not yellow. Indeed, the sign at KidZania was retina-searing pure orange, but it came out as yellow in the pictures due to the same technological limitations mentioned in this post on spot metering. The jumpsuits were the exact same orange as the sign, but come across as reddish in the photo due to white-balance issues and the horrible mix of every known type of lighting on earth.... just in very limited overall quantities. Sigh.)

Anyway, I couldn't find a business that I didn't immediately recognize. Even the generic government services like the KidZania police force and fire department were sponsored by well-known conpanies.

The well-known names and uniforms, of course, make it all the more fun and real for the kids. The lead “guard” in the photo above is about to walk by a delivery truck for Yamato Kuroneko (the Japan equivalent of Federal Express), whose uniforms Anthony tried to mimic in his deliveryman play a few years ago.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/3.2, ISO 1000 — full exif
Surgery

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Car Manufacture
this Mitsubishi awaits its passenger seat and door

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Seiko Watch
for some reason, Seiko Watch's activity was a dance performance (????)

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Radio Broadcast
the kids get to use the most-excellent Sony MDR-V6 headphones

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Baking

According to the sign above the kid at right, up to 10 kids can do this “job” at a time, and it takes about 30 minutes. Recommended for kids age 3 and above. Salary is 5 KidZo bucks. These kids were next in line, after the group inside was done.

The netting under their hats looks perfectly normal for someone in a bakery, but it's a general hygiene thing at KidZania... kids get a hair net to wear under whatever headgear goes with the uniform.

It was quite dark inside, so I had trouble getting good shots. I wonder how well the photojournalists in the shot below did with their Sony cameras, as they covered the KidZania fire department rolling on yet another fire....

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Photojournalists

KidZania seems to be fire prone, with the FD getting called out just about every 30 minutes. And there must be something in the water, because the city produces a lot of babies...

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Another Look at the Maternity Ward

Other “businesses” include rent-a-car (where the kids actually get to drive a car), fashion boutique (designer or model), flight attendant, magician, building maintenance, ice-cream shop, hotel work (various positions), department store clerk / customer, financial consulting, flower shop, pet store, cell-phone sales, glass-making, barber / beautician, mayonnaise production, new-home sales, offset printing, pizza shop, train-conductor.... well, there are just oodles more.

There's a KidZania in Tokyo that Fumie had heard about from a friend, so when one opened here in March, she wanted to bring Anthony. As you might imagine, this kind of place is popular, so it's difficult to get a reservation (Fumie had made one months ago), and it's really expensive: $40 per kid, more than $20 per adult. Adults get absolutely nothing for their $20, except the ability to watch their kid. (And of course, it's worth it.)

There are two sessions per day, five or six hours long each; we went to the second one yesterday.

Here's the scene in the adjacent mall, waiting to get in...

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Waiting To Be Let In
after about half of the 450 or so families have already been let in

They're very regimented. They check your reservation, put RFID bracelets on you that can't be removed without a special tool or a bone-cutting chainsaw, and give you a card that indicates your place in line. Noting the crowd, I casually asked the registration lady how many people came each day, to which she replied in service-field Japanese of the most humble and floral variety: "I'm not at liberty to divulge such information to you". Whoa, just asking! It was very odd, as if I had asked a secret service agent “So, where will The President be most vulnerable?”. Weird.

Our group of three got entry position “G-18”. Each letter went from 1 through 60, and they had signs for up through “H-60”, so that means they're ready for up to 480 groups. Some groups might have just one parent and one adult, but many had multiple adults and multiple kids. I'll guess on average 2 adults and 1.75 kids per group, which would put the total crowd at 1,800 (and, for what it's worth, the total gross for the half-day session at $54,000).

When it came time to “load” the rope alleys with “G” groups, they called out each number one by one, and confirmed our group of three by name as we presented our “G-18” card. Our tickets were eventually checked, and our RFID bands rechecked, and finally we gained admittance. Anthony had many activities he wanted to try, but one was clearly on top of his must-do list, and so we made a bee-line directly there.... only to find out that he'd have to wait 20 minutes before getting to start.

But that begins a story left for another post....but as a hint, none of the activities that Anthony did have been mentioned in this post.