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Robb & Elissa in Japan - 2015!


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I wonder if this is a park that would be sustainable in the United States?

Please READ the report! I cover this!!! Pretty much the exact reason why you asked this question is the reason why it won't work in the US!

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We definitely have a place like this in Charlotte. It's operated by the Junior Achievement of the Carolinas and is called JA Bizztown. Unfortunately its only open for elementary school field trips. Absolutely not as elaborate or cool as this (its funded entirely through donations afterall), but but the concept is viable here. KidZania should definitely try in the US again. Maybe not in a Mall, and cater to schools during the week, and everyone else on the weekend? Really cool concept!

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We definitely have a place like this in Charlotte. It's operated by the Junior Achievement of the Carolinas and is called JA Bizztown.

JA Bizztown is "like" this, but it is nowhere NEAR on the scale of KidZania and is operated totally differently. We have one in Tampa. We are well aware of what it is. Saying that JA Bizztown is similar to KidZania is like saying Six Flags America is similar to Tokyo Disneyland.

 

There are lots of different museums and educational children's learning centers that have similar activities (Discovery Center in Binghampton is another one) but when you walk into KidZania, you'll then realize there is *NOTHING* in the US that compares to it.

 

but the concept is viable here.

What you are talking about and what KidZania is are two totally different different things. If you would READ our report, you'll see that they did try this exact same concept here once, and it didn't work. I hear that they do want to try it again, but I fear that it wouldn't be the same, or would have to be a more dumbed down version of the attraction to work around the challenges of an American audience.

Edited by robbalvey
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I hear that they do want to try it again, but I fear that it wouldn't be the same, or would have to be a more dumbed down version of the attraction to work around the challenges of an American audience.

 

Don't forget the terrible PC police. A banner that read "English Speaking Wednesday" would be immediately branded racist.

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Great update guys

 

I just saw the adverts for the new Kidzania in London Yesterday.

 

I have a 6 year old niece and thought this like a great plan for her 7th birthday. (Secretly I'm kind of excited to see it too).

It looks like a great idea and actually pretty educational.

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After seeing this on FB yesterday i thought Holy S*** now seeing even more it makes me seriously jealous. I cant wait to take my daughter there one day!

 

Seriously, it sucks that we cant have nice things in the US

 

EDIT. Just looked at the pricing for this thing!!!! it is SERIOUSLY good value.

 

Back to earlier statement, why cant we have nice things

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This looks awesome! I'm not sure if we should make our way down to Mexico City to try the one there or just save up the cash and make a Japan Trip and go to the one in Tokyo. My son loves this type of stuff and it is so awesome to see things like this offered in certain parts of the world. I think it's also really cool that they have an English day in Tokyo so that locals can learn the language. I'm assuming they still keep to the Japanese culture while during the jobs rather than the American culture. Did Kristen leaner the secret ingredients and ratio to make Coke and can you bottle it from home now?

 

Jimmy "Any sit-on-your-ass-behind-a-computer jobs the kids can try" Bo

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Here is something that just happened which further shows why we just love Japan...

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Moments after this picture was taken, a Japanese staff member came over with her tambourine congratulating Kristen on her win. She said a bunch of Japanese stuff that I'm sure translated into "OMG! You are so cute! If I could give you free stuff I would, but I can't, so instead I'll open up this other machine filled with Frozen buttons and I can place them in such a way that you will immediately win them." Which she did. She opened the machine, asked Kristen what we favorite characters were, places those buttons near the edge, Kristen put in a coin, knocked four buttons into the hole and the tambourine girl erupts with excitement again!!!

 

I love Japan!

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So today we kind of took it easy. Made a quick trip over to LaQua to do some research, wander around the mall there and play some games. Then wandered over to Shinjuku to see Godzilla. Really today was just one of those "hang out" days, but it was totally fun!

 

We are live tweeting from Japan! Follow us on Twitter @themeparkreview -

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Our morning started out at rush hour on the trains. It's just a sea of people coming out of the station for like the next hour!

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Crazy packed trains. Used to it, though. And it's always fascinating just watching how Tokyo's rail and subway system works so efficiently with so many people!

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I love being in a place where Animal Crossing exists in daily pop culture!

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And speaking of Animal Crossing, getting 10 street passes at a time in a common regular occurrence when carrying your Nintendo 3DS around Japan!

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Yay! We made it!

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Took a ride on Thunder Dolphin today. Had more fun on the ride today than I last remembered, but it's still my least favorite of the Intamin hyper coasters.

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Not sure if it's because when I first rode it in 2004, it wasn't that long after riding Expedition GeForce, Supermans, Goliath, Millennium Force, etc, and this one isn't as good as those...

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...or if I've just been on so many lackluster and boring B&M hypers since then that going back on Thunder Dolphin made me appreciate that while it's not the best Intamin hyper, at least it's not a forceless B&M hyper! ;)

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Ride is fun. It certainly holds its speed the whole time, but that whole funky trick track pointless bit is just one of the most anti-climactic endings of a coaster ever.

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Love this view!

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Random robot just hanging out at LaQua!

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Hello Thunder Dolphin! You're better than I remembered, but still not as amazing as an Intamin hyper should be.

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Oh, Japan your ability to create new weird plush characters based on food is always entertaining to me!

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Story time! Moments after this picture was taken, a Japanese staff member came over with her tambourine congratulating Kristen on her win. She said a bunch of Japanese stuff that I'm sure translated into "OMG! You are so cute! If I could give you free stuff I would, but I can't, so instead I'll open up this other machine filled with Frozen buttons and I can place them in such a way that you will immediately win them." Which she did. She opened the machine, asked Kristen what we favorite characters were, places those buttons near the edge, Kristen put in a coin, knocked four buttons into the hole and the tambourine girl erupts with excitement again!!!

I love Japan!

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Um, so apparently this is some sort of weird video game where the controller is a bunch of sand?!??! How long would this even last in America???

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Never get tired of rows and rows of capsule machines.

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Having a delicious pre-lunch snack! Yakisoba noodles and some sort of charred animal flesh! Yum!

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At this restaurant at Tokyo Dome City (Where the big Tokyo Baseball stadium is) they have gyoza buns in the shape of baseballs! Amazeballs!

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I love that the Japanese do Chinese food better than the Chinese! lol That fried rice was sooooo good!

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While Japan actually does have some VERY good pizza, this is not one of them!

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Neither is this!

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Took a trip to Shinjuku. One of my favorite places to hang out at in Tokyo. Been here many times and I feel like I have not even scratched the surface of the random fun stuff you can find here!

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Nothing but awesome Japanese stuff as far as you can see.

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LOL! There is some sort of demon here! Why? Who cares! It's Japan! They are allowed to have random demons on buildings!

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Ahh, we are almost at our destination...

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GODZILLA!

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Yes, they constructed this Godzilla head, and at the hotel you can even get "Godzilla view themed rooms."

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The Taito Game Station is still one of my favorite arcades in Tokyo. 5 floors of awesome stuff!

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Gotta win this "Super Mario clock" at some point...

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If you are into anime, the claw machines here and TONS of stuff you can win.

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Lots of pachinko here...

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All of these machines look amazing I just wish I knew how to play them!

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This dude is drawing something??!?!

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First you buy a Tsum Tsum mini character from the capsule machine...

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You place the character on the machine like you would in Skylanders and your character appears on the screen.

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With this Tsum Tsums card, it saves all your data so you can take your character with you to another machine and either level up your character or play battle mode against someone else.

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Ok, I was totally blown away with the Tsum Tsums arcade game! I didn't even know this existed!

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And if you're not into Tsum Tsums, you can go to another random claw machine and win these mini-sausage looking things! Just so random!

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This arcade is one of those that has a "girls only" floor so girls can escape their horrible men on double dates!

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Here is an exclusive peek into the "girls only" floor! I know you all want to go, right men? =)

 

More random Japan tomorrow!

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Yay! There's our new Tsum Tsum in the game!

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And then you play the game very similar to how it is on the iPad! A few new extra feature are included.

Edited by robbalvey
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Kidzania looks incredible.

I have a trip to London planned end of August with my 12 year old daughter and just had a look with her at the Kidzania website.

And although we had already a lot of things planned to do in London, we just adjusted our schedule and will visit Kidzania the day of our arrival in London

Thank you so much for finding and sharing Kidzania.

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Hey everyone that is talking about the Kidsmania place. There was a thing just like it in South Florida called Wanna-Do-City at the SawGrass Mall. When I used to live in Boca Raton I used to go a few times a year and it was awesome. The place sadly closed down a few years ago. I had a lot of good memories there growing up...

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