Happy Holloween in Japan

This morning, after Hiroko said goodbye to Anna at the bus stop, she had a conversation with Kaisei, and Hiroto's mothers about Halloween in the USA and how we would like to try it here. They all really liked the idea and decided to do some trick or treating around the 2 chome area between each of our houses before dinner.

Anna dressed up as Ariel from the Little Mermaid, Honoka came dressed as "Princess Hon0ka", Kaisei was the ghost on the head caped guy, and Hiroto was the pumpkin king of the netherworld.

Honoka's Mom came by our house in thier car first because they lived a few blocks away. Then we headed out to Kaisei's house, from there we went to Hiroto's house and then back to ours.

The kids had a ball. We will definitely be doing this next year with a little more preparation and, hopefully, more kids.

Kidzania: Kids RULE!

Imagine, if you will, a world where all people over the age of 12 have been reduced to mere observers and instructors in a planet ruled by children. This is not Lord of the Flies; Welcome, to Kidzania!

In Kidzania my daughter was able to work in a Licca-chan Fashion Boutique (Japan's Barbie), become a chef in the ABC Cooking School where she made Omelet Rice for her Mom, become a nurse in and learn how to take care of newborn babies, and finally become a flight Attendant on All Nippon Airways. All this plus, she was able to open a Kidzania Bank Account at Mitsui Sumitomo Bank where she deposited her Kidzania bucks and got an ATM card.

She especially enjoyed the flight attendant. They had a huge fuselage of a ANA plane inside the town. There she boarded the flight and was able to work as a flight attendant (We do not call them stewardesses any more silly!). All the parents were able to watch their kids piloting the plane and serving meals. As you can see in the fuzzy shot above, Anna barely clears the meal cart. She had a ball though and so did Daddy! She asked after she got off the flight "Daddy, where did we go?"

I said, "I don't know Anna, you boarded the flight, the plane left, and then came back in 50 minutes. I was able to watch you on the TV though." She still thinks she took a trip on a plane, SO COOL!

It was like being able to watch your kids all day at school. The first time at Kidzania she always looked nervous. I knew, however, that she was just loving this. After coming home it was all she could talk about. Later today she will show Grandma Matsusaka and Hiroko how to properly wash a newborn. I can't wait!

2008 Kobayashi Tenjin Yochien Undokai

On Sunday this week we had Anna's Undokai or Sports day at her kindergarten. This was supposed to happen on Saturday but was delayed to the next day because of rain. My daughter had made these little ghost figures they call "Teru-Teru-Bohzu" to try to keep the rain from coming but they did not work until the following day.

This year is Kobayashi Tenjin's 20th anniversary. So they decided to try something special in the opening ceremony with all of the kids. They had prepared helium balloons for all of the children to release on cue. Now, I'm not sure how well this was actually thought out. They had grouped all of the balloons by color and since the strings were getting tangled, It took a good 30 minutes just to get the balloons handed out. While they were handing them out, one of the teachers kept telling the kids "HOLD THE BALLOONS WITH BOTH HANDS!". However, this was to no avail and you would see three or four stragglers get sent up into the sky. I was worried that the balloons would get in the way of the planes landing and leaving Narita Airport. You can see the balloon release in my Picassa album along with the other pictures. Just click the album above to see the whole album with the videos.