Since this blog is essentially my family diary, I'll take license to continue some posts from Anthony's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. After having cake, it was time for presents...

Anthony doesn't get to watch much TV, but when he does, it's often super-hero shows. When I was a kid there was batman and superman, and things were simple. In Japan these days there are all kinds of super heroes, all looking essentially identical to me, but the details are important stuff in the life of a first-grade boy.

His toy this time was something called a Double [...]

On the first night of our trip to Tokyo Disneyland Anthony rode a roller coaster for the first time (and second time and third time....) and loved it, and riding again the next day was high on his agenda.

This time he went by himself...

When Anthony started first grade last April, he couldn't read or write much Japanese, but since then he uses it every day in school, so now is quite proficient at both reading and writing. In fact, part of his homework is that he has to write a diary entry every day, in Japanese, such as this one from last week:

It's titled Pencil, and reads: "The pencil I used from the first semester until now has become small. It can't be used anymore. "It's time to part ways", I said. My little pencil buddy certainly liked me, I think."

I've [...]

After our Evening at Tokyo Disneyland, we awoke the next morning to find this view from the hotel window....

After checking out of the hotel, we headed over to Disneyland to see it for the first time in the daylight. Fumie and Anthony got ear-head-things, Fumie's with a Minny bow, and Anthony's with a Wizard's hat (from Fantasia, the first film my folks ever took me to)....

Lines early on had hour-long wait times, but we'd read about the "fastpass" system that allows you to get a ticket that reserves a spot for later to an expedited line. It doesn't [...]

So, yesterday's post about the start of a short overnight trip to Tokyo Disneyland ended with us arriving at the train station. The station is "right at the entrance", but as with all distances in a Disneyland, things are relative, and it was a fair hike...

I should point out up front that I do realize that the picture quality in today's post is hovering somewhere around "pathetic". We arrived at night and it was quite dark, and I didn't have my good lenses with me (due to our hotel, which was also pathetic; more on that later). I did [...]