Today we ventured out to Yokohoma to visit the Anpanman museum. For whatever reason, Anpanman is huge in Japan. I don't quite get it, but amazingly enough Kai is also completely mad about Anpanman. What is even more amazing is that they have an entire museum dedicated to the Anpanman cartoon and all the characters. It's amazing what you will do once you have kids. It has been near winter-like conditions in Japan since we got here, and this was the first day that the sun really came out and the temperature finally hit the mid 50's.
If you wanted to know what Anpanman looks like, here you go. I never realized it, but I think Kai looks like a little Japanese anime when he smiles.
Here is the full cast of the Anpanman cartoon. I only know 3-4 characters in the show, but I figure I'll eventually need to learn their names.
Througout the day, they had different activities for kids. Kai was really into this one activity where they were making Anpanman masks.
The museum is basically one massive warehouse with three floors. On the first floor they have gifts shops, an outdoor play area, and a series of brightly colored slides. Kai must have ridden the slides 10 times or more...wiped him out. He even explained to the workers there that he was "san-sai" (three years old), the minimum age to ride the slides. Below is an artsy view of the slides on the first floor.
Japan is a really clean country...and it's a real challenge to a find a garbage can. Everyone is encouraged to take their own garbage with them. As you can tell in the photo below, not a shred of trash to be seen.
