Yesterday we rounded off our half term break with a Nintendo inspired visit to Bradford Media Museum, to be partakers of the “YO-KAI WATCH” experience they currently have there.
Whilst we are obviously behind the times and had never heard of the mysterious world of Nintendo’s YO-KAI WATCH, we were still very excited to go and check it out after receiving an invitation from them. The media museum has always been a favourite of ours, and enjoyed all the more so now the kids are older and can better appreciate and explore everything it has to offer. It is always exciting to go to places we love and see what’s new, and on this occasion it didn’t matter that we new nothing of this latest craze because we knew it would be just as great as other events we have attended there and an opportunity to be educated. The wonderful staff welcomed us with an easy and captivating explanation, handed us a worksheet and then we set out to hunt around the museum for the answers in order to win our very own YO-KAI WATCH.
Yo-kai watch is big in Japan and is all about this idea that Yo-Kai wander around our world, invisible to most. Usually, they have no bad intentions, but they have a mind of their own paired with a unique talent for mischief! With the power of the Yo-kai Watch, you can find these hidden Yo-kai, befriend them, and call upon their powers when you need their help. This idea completely hooked Megan and she quickly got into this make believe world of Yo-Kai! They loved the treasure hunt feel it had, and as we later had an opportunity to play the game with the Nintendo experts, we loved the feel of being “in the game” on a treasure hunt around the museum.
Its a great opportunity to build the kids imagination, if like me you act the make believe games with them, if not its a fun scavenger hunt! The trail helped us to stop and take note of fascinating artefacts within the museum, that previously I know we have overlooked and that too was a great opportunity for the kids to appreciate history on a level that brought it home to the world of media as we see it now. It was great fun to use them as talking points and make comparisons (which I loved) when previously we wandered through to “play”, “Be on TV” and “see old TVs”. It is certainly a museum that grows with with you.
Both Ethan and Megan quickly picked up what it was all about and Megs couldn’t have been more excited to complete it and now be owning a Yo-KAI watch!
After a gorgeous lunch in the Museum cafe, they thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to play it on the Nintendo 3Ds with experts guiding them and praising them as they mastered a hand held gaming console (a great novelty in our family). We had a 15 minute slot and it was just enough and lots of fun – the highlight for Ethan apparently!
We rounded our visit off with our favourite thing to do at the media museum and booked a little booth to watch Wallace and Gromit. It was certainly a fun end to our half term, seeing a combination of our little traditions in with something completely new and yet so fun and interesting! We all learnt a lot, had fun and best of all it was FREE!!
I really love that National Media Museum is ever changing and giving us opportunities to experience the latest aspects within our Media. I love that through the things that appeal to kids and are current, they also have an opportunity to better grasp parts of our history, and it just makes it fun for us all to do things like this together!
YO-KAI WATCH is on until the 26th of February and is all completely FREE! You can join in the fun this week with your kids by finding the YO-KAI around the museum to win their very own watches, see the cartoon, crafting and even playing the game too (make sure you book on arrival). You can take a picnic or enjoy the delicious delights on offer in the Cafe (Ethan would highly recommend their pizza)! And round off your visit playing retro games or watching old Tv programmes!
We love the Media Museum and you don’t have to know anything about YO-KAI before embarking on a visit this half term, it will all be revealed upon arrival and the kids will love it!
*Thank you to the Media Museum for inviting us to review this Half term extravaganza and for feeding us while we were there. All thoughts and pictures are our own!
