Yokohama Anpanman Children's Museum

Well, we made it to Japan. It was a pretty long flight. Momoka wasn't too thrilled with the airplane and despite the best efforts of momma and I she was pretty unhappy. We brought along a portable DVD player with Elmo, Barney, Blues Clues and Baby Einstein DVD's, toys, books and snacks. Even with all that about 1/3 of the way through the flight she started getting a little fussy. Momoka needed a nap but couldn't get settled in. She sleeps great through the night and enjoys sleeping in her bed. She will also sleep in her car seat, but anywhere else, napping or otherwise, is a difficult proposition. I think that's because she has been somewhat of a home body and never developed the skill of sleeping in different places (and definitely not on airplanes). Even though she got a little fussy she is such a trooper and we are so proud of her. She is still just a baby but will allow us to yank her out of her environment and fly her half way around the world with really only minimal griping. What a gal.

We rented a weekly furnished apartment (much like Oakwood in Rappongi) and it has been a nice place to stay. I have been traveling to Korea and Okinawa but momma and Momoka stayed in the apartment and have been doing fun things like going to the dentist. I will finish my business on the 25th and we will be staying through the 1st of June so we'll have some time to do fun things together as a family - like cleaning out Akachan Honpo - YATTA!

One thing we did get to do this last weekend is take Momoka to the Anapanman Children's Museum in Yokohama. I have talked about Anpanman in previous posts and when we learned there was an entire museum dedicated to him we knew it was one of the destinations we had to stop at. Needless to say our gal loved the place. It is one Anpanman toy shop and restaurant after the other attached to a historic museum of the cartoon itself. Our gal wandered from place to place and was in heaven with all the toys and stuff. We did not go into the museum yet but will go back during the week when the crowds are smaller. Here are a few action photos of our gal having a snack at the "Jam Ojisan Bakery".

Here she is eating the ears off "Cheese" (pronounced Cheezu). Cheezu is a little dog in the cartoon and this bread was baked in the shape of his face.


Hey, these ears are tasty!

Inside the bread was a sweet cheese filling. Not too bad.

Q: "are you sure this doesn't have any vegetables inside daddy?"

Hey, Cheezu sure is tasty! Taking a big bite.

This is one of her favorite characters - "Jam Ojisan". Jam Ojisan is the baker who bakes a new Anpanman head and puts it on Anpanman's body if something bad happens to him. Long story but trust me, that's how it works.

Here she is testing some banana milk we bought her to drink. On top of the drink is an outline of Anpanman's face made out of cocoa powder. She was drinking the milk out of a regular straw, which for me is great. She is completely off the bottle now and uses these cool cups momma found that have these built in straws. She does not like traditional sippy cups but loves to drink from a straw. We're just happy she dropped the bottle with no complaints. Such a big girl!