We started our day by taking the train to Osaka Castle Park. I realized last night that I’ve failed at taking many photos of my parents, and especially of people together, so here is one of them on the train. My dad is fitting in with Japanese society as “man getting over a sickness”.

Our first stop was an offering to Millie: the playground at the corner of the park. It was very retro and entirely made of metal pipes.

She didn’t last too long and complained that the metal hurt her knees. From her dangerously high perch in the above photo, she spotted another playground and request we go to it. This is how we found Playville, where she then spent the majority of her day.

Playville was a large indoor / outdoor kids play area. Of all of the similar types of recreation places we have been to on this trip, this one was probably my favorite. It felt very Montessori. It had a bunch of simple and welcoming stations set up for kids to play on.

Nick and I took turns inside. While he was in there I hung out with my parents and ate lunch. While I was in there he explored the castle.

Millie spent most of her time in three areas.

Painting:

Building little worlds with blocks and playing with animals:

And on the indoor play equipment (even though they had a huge outdoor playground and the weather was perfect)

It was hard to drag her out of here and she kept asking to come back another day. On our way out she saw the park train and requested to go on it. Nick took one for the team and rode with her, while my parents sat on a bench.

I thought it was going to be a quick 5-10 minute kiddie ride but it turned out to be a full 45 minute tour of the park. Nick sent us this about 5 minutes before they got back.

Meanwhile we enjoyed people watching and the light changing against the beautiful trees.

Millie was then grumpy from the moment she woke up after the train ride to the moment she went to bed tonight.

From the park, we took the metro to Osaka station with a few objectives: to find a cool Hanshin Tigers hat for Nick (fail), to get an extra bag for my parents to carry some things home (success), and to eat at the giant food court (mixed- we didn’t go to the right food court, but had dinner). Millie drew this very accurate portrait of my parents.

We rode home through the busy rush hour of the huge station and put a very tired little whiner to bed.