Before our trip, we had consulted ChatGPT to plan an itinerary for Kyoto. It was rather limited as the AI took it rather literally that we wanted to spend all of our time in Kyoto — or I wasn’t using the right prompt. It only suggested Kyoto City Zoo, Kyoto Aquarium and the Kyoto Railway Museum.
Missus and I liked the latter two ideas but not the first — we haven’t even been to the zoo back home in Singapore. Missus Googled and found that it was possible to do a day trip to Nagoya for Legoland Japan. The little girl liked making things with her Duplo blocks and we thought this would be most meaningful to her. So off we went.
We hadn’t bought tickets before we left for Japan to keep things flexible. No problems though as the tickets could be easily bought online and stored in your e-wallet. Then we needed to get Shinkansen tickets to get to Nagoya (which was around 100 km away from Kyoto where we were based). This could be bought from either a ticketing machine (using cash) or at a ticketing counter. Not wanting to queue, we took the ticketing machine option. The ticket cost around ¥5,000-6,000.
It was slightly challenging to use the machine as my Japanese is limited to recognising kanji (basically traditional Chinese characters) and hiragana and katakana characters — the latter doesn’t mean much because I can read but I’ve almost zero vocabulary (same as a toddler knowing his/her ABCs but very little words). I ended up only buying one-way non reserved tickets — which meant we need to get tickets in Nagoya to find our way back to Kyoto.
We had a late start to the day, so we arrived in Nagoya past noon and took some more time to travel by a local subway to Kinjofuto station along the Aonami line which Legoland is served by. Credit to the little one. She never complained, at least not vehemently, through the long commute lasting more than one hour.
In the vicinity of Legoland was an area called, “Maker’s Pier” which houses several F&B establishments. As we had a late start, we just got bento at the train station in Nagoya to have a picnic lunch. Maker’s Pier had an artificial lawn where there was also a musical fountain. Our little one was really comfortable running around on her own when we were there. She really went wild when the fountain show started — bouncing around like an excited puppy.
After the picnic lunch, we headed into the Legoland. This was already around 2pm — this would have repercussions for our visit. Our first stop was a merry-go-round ride. This consisted of “horses” in various shapes and forms (some are unicorns, tigers, etc) in the inner ring and “boats” seating three in the outer ring. Parents with children opting for “horses” would’ve to stand. Thankfully, despite our encouragement, the Lil one opted for a “boat” so we could all sit for the ride!
After the ride, we headed for a kiddy train ride but the Lil one did not want to wait in line (estimated to be 30 minutes). So we went to the Duplo Valley play area where there were Duplo pieces of every imaginable shapes and sizes. Like a kid in a candy store she was giddy with joy at the many toys she could play with.
The Lil one could probably spend the whole afternoon playing with Duplo. However, we saw that there was a Lego factory tour and thought that we should join — it’s more for Missus and myself (the Lil one was not at the stage at to appreciate the details behind how things were made).
There was a fair bit of crowd for this one. The tour consisted of a video show (Japanese with subs) and a factory floor showcase. Think this was expectedly more fun for Missus and myself. The Lil girl just sort of put up with it. She had to cut off her Duplo playing binge to indulge us. We appreciated her for that!
After the tour, we went to a play area for Lego bricks. The concept of the play area was for children to build anything they want, take a picture with it and leave their work at a display area. Maybe because she’s more familiar with Duplo, she was less ecstatic than was the case earlier. It was still fun for her but the dial was maybe at a 7 to 8 and not 11 for Duplo. She built a robot with the various odds and ends pieces. We were trying to find axle and wheel pieces for her but couldn’t — guess these pieces must’ve been really popular.
At the play area, we were informed by the staff there that the park would close at 4pm. This was the part we didn’t anticipate. We had assumed without checking that the closing time would at the earliest be around 5pm. So from then on, we had to manage the time carefully as we only had slightly less than an hour.
We wanted to buy her a set of Lego blocks as a memento for our visit. Many other parents had the same idea. There was a long snaking queue forming at the cashier like it was a popular ride. Missus stood in queue with the Lil one while I went around in the store to look for something. We managed to find a reasonably priced Legoland Train Set (2 thousand plus yen) which seems to retail in Singapore at a much higher price.
Despite the hectic end to our Legoland visit, think it was still enjoyable for us. Missus ans I really enjoyed seeing the Lil one running free and really enjoying herself. Lil Missy enjoyed playing with more Duplo and Lego blocks than she had ever seen before. The availability of pieces that she had never played with before must have been an eye-opener for her.
That’s it for this post. Thanks for reading. Would like to write a few more posts of the places we visited during our trip. Hope I can find the time to do it. Till next time, stay healthy and safe everyone.
Ask the Clueless Middle Age Dad 
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