This is the most serious aquarium I have ever seen. It’s situated right on the port of Osaka, which seems appropriate. Nearby is the most serious ferris wheel I have ever seen. We contemplated going for a spin in it, but we decided otherwise. I learned that the aquarium contained 1.5 times the world’s annual […]

Krafty had done quite a bit of research before our trip, and I am seeing it reveal itself bit by bit. This part included finding a video game store called Super Potato. We got there and found that it was closed though, which was strange because it was about 11:30 am on a Wednesday. Luckily […]

Noo Noo and Krafty had the idea to go to Namco Land, which is three stories full of arcade games. The first floor (the only floor on which there is an entrance) is all super cute claw grabber games. It’s an interesting choice. The second floor is clearly divided into male-targeted action games and female-targeted […]

The Japanese take their trains very seriously. We saw some quite striking train cars pull up to Kansai International Airport. It seemed like a car show but with trains. On some trains, the conductors wear white gloves. On ours, the conductor turned and bowed every time he left a train car and went through to […]

We saw the Umeda Sky Building today, which was just as epic as we had imagined. I was surprised to learn that Kira was afraid of heights and Kristin had vertigo. They were a bit nervous on the way up the glass elevator but got accustomed to the height once they were on top. Some […]

I was having a hard time thinking of something more ridiculous than having a multi-stage treatment regimen for dry skin. Then I found this in the airplane lavatory.

We had a great view of the proceedings from where we sat in the terminal in San Francisco. My siblings are all very observant, and they noticed before I did that someone was riding a bike out there. Also, while we waited for the hotel shuttle last night, Kira counted the number of times the […]

I met up with my family, plus my brother’s friend who goes by the name “Krafty”, in the San Francisco airport. We were all quite hungry after our long direct flights out to SF (they flew in from Philly). Things sure aren’t what they used to be as far as food on domestic flights. Then […]

I’m heading to Japan for 10 days. If that’s surprising news to you, I am almost equally surprised about it! My brother, Matt, is playing in an international piano competition, which happens to be in Osaka. My stepmother had the idea to make a family vacation out of it, so I said “sure!” (well, I […]