New Family Pictures

We took some new family pictures on Sunday, using the tripod that I got for Mother's Day. No more having to use the stroller to prop up the camera.

We also tried to get some pictures of the kids, but they didn't really cooperate. Here are the best ones.

Rolling

You just can't leave a baby alone for a second anymore. I ran to get something from the other room, and heard a giant RIP. Lottie had rolled over to the magazines and ripped a giant swath of paper out of my Better Homes and Gardens.

Hanging Out

Hanging with Daddy

Chicken Dance

Camp Zama also had an Oktoberfest this weekend. They managed to find the only Oompa band in all of Japan to play it. The DJ announced them as the Brass Joses, but I suspect they are really the Brass Hosen. They, of course, played the Chicken Dance. Adam loved it!

Lantern Festival

We got a hot tip about a festival in Sagami Ono (one train stop down from us), so we had to check it out. A teething Lottie was ready to go!

The next day (Columbus Day for us) was Sports Day, a Japanese national holiday, so everyone was out and about. Even the road to the park was filled with vendors. This one had pots and mugs that you could paint as well as stations to throw pots.

There is a famous festival in Northern Japan (Amori) where they float lanterns down a river. This was Sagami Ono's attempt to stage a lantern festival. The kids all decorated lanterns, then (we think) they floated them on Saturday night.

Once in the park, we found two bounce houses. It was 200 yen for 5 minutes! We are suckers, so Adam got to go. Here he is, waiting in line with the rest of the kids.

He wouldn't pose for a picture.

Then he really got lucky when Daddy bought him cotton candy.

The little Japanese girl in her kimono was too cute. I had to take a picture.

Lottie enjoyed the festival too, even without the cotton candy. She checked everything out, and wouldn't take a nap until we were off the train, walking home.

Tooth!

On Friday morning, we noticed that Lottie's gum was white where her first tooth was almost poking through. By Friday evening, the tooth was out! She now has a tiny bit of very sharp tooth sticking out on left bottom side. You can just barely see it in this picture. She's now armed and dangerous!

Lalaport

We headed for Lalaport, a huge mall in Yokohama after our visit to the Triennale. We let Adam have some fun at Namco Land. He got to ride a Thomas train,

and a giant panda.

Lottie had fun with Mom and Dad.

They also had two cool ball/play areas for young toddlers and older kids. Adam wasn't tall enough for the big kid area, but we shelled out the 300 yen for 20 minutes in the baby ball pits. He went crazy for 20 minutes, then threw a giant fit when we had to leave. But he recovered when Daddy played Whack-A-Mole with him.

Yokohama Triennale

So we actually went to Yokohama to see the Triennale, a contemporary arts festival that Yokohama puts on every three years. Here's the Ring Dome that was installed by the information booth.

The exhibits were all over the Yokohama waterfront area. We only went to two buildings, this red brick warehouse and a pier.

This is the view from the park by the warehouse.

Here's Adam enjoying the open spaces in the exhibit. He really liked the art. Contemporary installations are a good bet for toddlers, since most of them can be walked through and/or around.

Our arty family portrait.

Oktoberfest, Japanese Style

We were on our way to an art festival (post to follow), when we got sidetracked by the Yokohama Oktoberfest. It was lunch, so we stopped for some Japanese German food and beer. Here's some of the most authentic "German" food. Japanese apparently think that German food is meat. Any kind of meat. Also, wurst wrapped in rice and seaweed. Yum?

Here's the stage. We were too early for the entertainment (I can only imagine), but you can see the Japanese woman in the dirndl.

Here's our food - wurst, sauerkraut, some weird non-German bread, and potato pancakes that were decidedly also non-German. The wurst and the beer were delicious.

Here are some Japanese, eating German wurst with CHOPSTICKS.

Adam desperately wanted to try Daddy's beer. As you can see, he thought it was delicious! He didn't ask again.

Lottie enjoyed Oktoberfest too.

The Germans working the Spaten beer taps had decorated with gingerbread hearts. I loved those growing up, so I made Chris ask them if they had gotten them here. He asked in German, and they laughed at him, and told him that they had brought them from Germany. Guess they needed a laugh, so they gave him a free beer. We're pretty sure they think Chris is German. They also gave Adam a German flag.