New Years & Anpanman

As many of our readers may know, I am a sucker for Japanese pop culture. I said a few years back that it's not really the shrines, temples, geisha, kimonos, kokeshi dolls, etc., that really interest me. It's popular views, technology, popular foods, and kawaii paraphernalia. Anyway, I have fulfilled one of my goals this holiday season. Taking the train with my girlfriend, her son, Joshua & Samuel to the Anpanman museum in Yokohama. Anpanman is probably a close runner up to Hello Kitty in this country. Young children go wild for this super hero who, for the most part, is a non-violent superhero. It is very "Japanese" in the sense that the villain in this anime cartoon is Baikinman, which translates to "Germ Man". Baikinman's ultimate goal is to take over the planet and make it into a germ world. Anpanman, our superhero is, as I stated, a non-violent super hero who tries to solve problems instead by sacrificing himself; a very "Japanese" and valuable lesson. To read more about the plot, click on Anpanman and it will lead you to the Wikipedia link. The museum itself is like many children's museums throughout Japan in that there aren't too many displays. Instead, it's more like indoor play areas. It's located very close to the Toy's R Us at Shin-Takashima train stop on the Minato Mira line. I really appreciate the Minato Mira line. It's very modern, clean and stroller/child friendly. Joshua is 5 and his friend is 4. They were a little too old for this museum. It's perfect for the 2.5-3 year range. We went during the New Year holiday which we should have known was going to be a nightmare, but it really was OK. They have a very cute Uncle Jam pastry shop (Uncle Jam or, Jam Ojisan was the original creator of Anpanman and he also repairs Anpanman now and again as needed) along with a Mega Block area, Anpanman ball area and small toddler play areas. The museum is great for taking babies as there are two very large nurseries located on the first and second floor of the museum.

New Years came and went. We have now officially entered the old person world. Maybe just because we are parents of young children, we value our sleep way too much to stay up late just to wish each other a Happy New Year. I woke up at around 2:00AM to feed Sam and I nudged Mike to wish him a Happy New Year.

The best part of the holiday was that our friends from Gunma came to visit. Their family has grown as well, and we were lucky enough to see their latest 3-week old addition. She is adorable. We love it when they visit. They are English teachers in Gunma Prefecture. Both American, but their children have been born here and speak more Japanese than English. We always learn something new about Japan when we have them here and they are able to give us a lot more information on general things as they can read and speak the language fairly well themselves. They enjoy visiting us of course because they can get a little taste of home. Their children also have an opportunity to play with English speaking children here on base. We were saving a turkey in the freezer for them so that we could deep fry it when they were finally up for a visit. We enjoyed a turkey dinner all over again and had a full house and a great time. Next time it will be our turn to visit. It still amazes me that they live (give or take) 100 miles from us and yet it takes 3 hours to drive there (Something that would take about an hour and a half in the States). Most road warriors of Japan will tell you that "all roads lead to Tokyo" and around here, that's pretty much the case.

I'm going to try and get some pictures up of Anpanman. Hope our readers enjoyed this segment. I know many folks were waiting on a non-family entry. Don't worry, we are slowly making our way back out into the wilds of Japan... with baby in tow.