Legoland Discovery Center

There were so many fun pictures from our day at Legoland Discovery Center it was hard not to include them all.  The first full weekend in November was a little rainy and cool. We weren't sure what we wanted to do on Saturday as a family and then we came across information about Legoland Discovery Center in the Odaiba area. The center is a part of a mall and when you first enter they have a room that shows how Legos are made and you can push buttons and turn wheels, etc. Of course, throughout the center there are fun people and animals made from Legos.

One of the really neat things that they have built is a room that is a Lego replica of Tokyo, it has all the main sights and buildings.

Every 3-5 minutes the lights change and it goes from day to night.

There were also buttons that would make different parts move like the figures inside the sumo stadium.

I liked the look on Roderick's face in this picture while he's trying to decide how comfortable he is around this dragon.

Riding a bike, no big deal

Cameron's handiwork from one of the big tubs of Legos that are set throughout to play with.

Roderick showing his muscles and how strong he is. I'm helping him growl.

They even had a Duplo area for younger kids.

The race car area was pretty funny for a few reasons. Roderick was getting tired and every time he put his car down the track he would get sad and start crying like he wouldn't be able to get it back. He'd also cry when he'd see random pieces on the ground because he thought they were from his car and that it was breaking. A few of the ramps were too steep and the cars couldn't handle them, they'd just break apart. Cameron spent 15 minutes building his car and unfortunately it crashed and burned on its first run. 

Zombies!!

Getting ready for the 4D show. It made Roderick a little nervous because it was so loud so he ended up on my lap. After the show he'd say, "Movie, loud!"

Although not the greatest picture, this little ride was fun, it just went around in circles and the seats moved up and down but Roderick had been watching it and wanting to ride. He was just barely, barely, barely tall enough, so we were glad they let him on the ride.

Ninjago

After we were done we walked through a few malls and went down by the water, Roderick was his charming self and made some new friends.

You might recognize this small replica of the Statue of Liberty. I hadn't realized there was one here in Tokyo until the night before we came out here.

Here we are with the Rainbow Bridge and downtown Tokyo behind us.

Tama Zoo aka The Most Awesome Zoo Ever

We had been wanting to go to Tama Zoo for about a month, but due to weather and busy schedules we didn't make it there until the beginning of November. The day was nice and sunny and we had an amazing time there. The first thing we did was take a ride on the lion bus. It wasn't a huge enclosure and the ride was only about 10 minutes but the employees put little pieces of meat on the outside of the bus and the lions get right next to the windows to eat it which is a lot of fun.

I thought Roderick might be nervous, but he enjoyed it as much as we did.

For days after the zoo he would talk about the bus, the lions and the window. "Lion eat window."

The other part about the zoo that made it such a great experience was that all the animals were so active. Here we are with the zebras and giraffes in the background.

Roderick and the elephant

These monkeys were running and playing and chasing each other all around.

I think we were watching some birds in the picture below.

There were about 4-5 kangaroos that had little joeys in their pockets and we saw a few get in/out of the pockets.

They had quite a few kangaroos and we sat and watched them for awhile since it was so entertaining with the baby joeys.

Watching the tiger pace

Pretending to have antlers

The view from the the 'top' of the zoo

The rhino in this picture was standing pretty far back when we first walked up but then he lumbered right over in front of Roderick and got in the water.

Here we are at the front gate on our way out, and that's about it for another successful zoo day! 

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween, it's great to have a child old enough to enjoy and understand what's happening. I was unsure at first what the Japanese would do to celebrate, but there were decorations up all over the place the whole month of October. Something that was definitely different was the "pumpkin situation." A small pumpkin runs anywhere from $20 on up, so we found our own way to decorate/carve pumpkins.

The week of Halloween we went to a church party, a trunk-or-treat, and some regular trick-or-treating at the US Embassy Compound. I like dressing up and I also feel like a costume needs to be used several times to make it worth the effort of buying/making it.

My cute little puppy

Handsome Mt. Fuji

At the trunk-or-treat with some friends we've met through Eikaiwa (English Class that I help with each week)

Chasing the glow stick

Out trick-or-treating with the masses

The big pumpkin face

I was quite surprised when we left our house on Halloween evening at the number of Japanese kids that were all dressed up and trick-or-treating at the businesses around our house.  From talking with others I found out that it's probably only in the last five years that celebrating Halloween by dressing up and trick-or-treating has really been happening.  On our way home Halloween night we saw this group of girls all dressed alike and they loved little Roderick so we got a quick picture. :)

Cup Noodle

Did you realize that it's Cup Noodle, not Cup of Noodles? We went out to the Cup Noodle Museum in Yokohama on October 18th.  The exhibit was very interactive and kept us all entertained as we looked around. 

Look at how "big" my little boy is ;)

When you touched these pictures they would start a "shadow" picture on the wall above that would convert to other things that look similar.

The best part was getting to make our own Cup Noodle. We got empty cups that we decorated and then we got to choose our flavor and toppings to go inside.

The Cup Noodle Man- all dressed up for Halloween

After the museum we walked around the area where there were a few little amusement parks and a mall. I couldn't pass up taking Roderick on this little Thomas ride for 200 yen.

The week after we went to the museum we ate our noodles for dinner.

We each had different flavors. Roderick's was original, Cameron's was curry and mine was chili tomato.

These little chicken faces are made of fish paste, which is basically the fish version of hot dogs... I wasn't interested in eating them but Roderick loved them.

This is Roderick's cup

My Cup

 Cameron's Cup all the way around