If you've read my earlier Child's Play columns, then you probably know that my family and I will visit just about any place that deals with science and technology. Lucky for me, Tokyo is full of these places, but it certainly isn't the only city in Japan with learning opportunities like this.

Whenever the family heads to Kansai, we have our favorite spots to visit: In Osaka, for example, there's the Kids Plaza and Big Bang children's museums, and the city's Science Museum. But the last time we were in the area, we wanted to try somewhere new, so we headed further west to the Kobe Science Museum.

The planetarium is just inside the entrance on the left, but I can't give it a hearty recommendation unless you really love planetarium shows. It started off interesting, as a narrator used the starscape above to show us exactly where on the map of Japan we were. Not long after, however, the staff flipped a switch and the light show became a projected cartoon whose simplified explanation of astronomy bored all but the 6-year-old in our party.