One day in Kidzania

This time we will learn through a real experience in Kidzania.

First let's have a look at the background of the protagonist : she is a mother from China but work in Tokyo now. She has taken her 7-year-old boy Xiao to the Kidzania in Tokyo in 14/7/2011.

The following story comes from her oral, translated by me :

Kidzania, it’s a strange name, I know ‘Kid’ is ‘child’, but ‘zania’, I think it’s maybe a Latin word which means ‘Country’, anyway, ‘Kidzania’ is a kid playing country or city.

Xiao always wants to go there because of some advertisement from television. Once I took him to the front door of Kidzania, but there was no ticket for this day, the working staff told us that we should make an appointment before. So in the summer holiday, I ordered a set of tickets online (parents must to follow the children who are under 3 grades in primary school, and they need to buy tickets too.)

Kidzania here opens twice a day, 10:00-15:00in the morning and 16:00-21:00 in the afternoon, tickets for the children are 3000 yen and adults 2000 yen, the working staff tied a facility on Xiao’s arm, it’s said that it’s a ID document.

Since it is a children country, there is its own money which is called ‘Kizo’, each child will get a credit card and a bank account with 50 Kizo when they come here. 

Xiao was thinking about how to spend the 50 Kizo after he got them, his first job was to make ice creams (other boys want to be firefighters or pilots), so he used 8 Kizo to buy a ice cream which was the first time and last time Xiao spent money in Kidzania, because he began to work later.

Xiao got 6 jobs in 5 hours: ice cream shop clerk, dentist, lawyer, magician, actor and another one I forgot. (My friend says he works fast, her child finished 3-4 jobs in general.) Xiao knows how hard it is to earn money through working by himself, so he deposited all the money in the Kidzania bank so that he can use them when he comes here next time. 

Every work is perfect just as in the real world, a lot of occupations are supported by the reality companies, so they used the real name, such as ‘Mitsui Sumitomo Bank’ credit card, ‘Asahi Shimbum’ newspapers, the ‘Japan Airlines’ airplanes. There will be a 15-minute training for every job, then the children will take all kinds of uniforms; dentist wears white gown and mask to put in a false tooth for the patient, Xiao told me it was a golden tooth and he spent great efforts.

The work in the court was distributed by balloting, Xiao was a lawyer. Camera was forbidden in the court, it was a discipline, so I just sat and listened. A girl was unlucky to draw a defendant, the judging boy was easy, just sitting and having nothing to do. Xiao told me that in fact it is like this: the defendant is unlucky, the judge is in disorderly, and lawyers and prosecutors are most tired.

Xiao wanted to be an actor later so we went to the TV station, parents could not to enter the hall, so I did not see what he played. But after the programmed finished, the working staff gave us a disc. I watched the disc after coming back home, a group of children danced or did some semaphore with the help of working staff, Xiao did not look nervous.

A kid only can finish 6 jobs of the 60 jobs, Xiao said he would go there again.

Kidzania let children have a simple consciousness for the adults world, and understand simple social payment structure. Xiao knows getting money was so hard eventually. From this point of vies, Kidzania is a very nice and interesting place.