Kobe Harbor Cruise and Day At Kobe HarborLand/Mosaic

Another weekend has arrived. Today, after a leisurely breakfast (cheese and mushroom omelettes! The mushrooms here rock. And the eggs are yolkier), Jacob's yoga class, a trip to the playground for the kids, and a trip to the gym for Mike, we headed into Kobe and went to Mosaic, a shopping, food, and entertainment center in Kobe Bay that we had been to once before.

Some pictures from Rokko Island River Mall, before we left:


Mike and Ilena's conversation while watching Jacob and Lauren scooter themselves to the nearby playground:
Mike - "That's cute"
Ilena - "Um...I think they are throwing rocks at those pigeons"
Mike - "Well...it looked cute from a distance"

Today, the weather called for rain. So we took all four umbrellas that we own. Every other rainy day, we had been stuck without an umbrella. Not today! As it turned out, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. And we carried those damned umbrellas around with us all day.

When we got to Kobe, we had a great buffet lunch at a nice wide-open restaurant that overlooked Kobe Bay. Dessert included a chocolate fountain that we dipped marshmallows, cake, and cookies into! Buffets are few and far between in Japan. There was little effort and something for everyone. We all enjoyed!


After wandering around the shops, we headed out to the amusement area where the kids rode on a mechanized Panda, the flying elephant ride (Dumbo!), and visited their favorite arcade games. The arcades here are way cool and over-the-top, and they are designed for (and filled with) adults - not kids! The games included a taiko drumming game and tons of huge interactive screens and games. We had to pull Jacob away.


We were wandering around the harbor, checking out the boats and the view, when we decided to find out about the various harbor cruises and got a great deal on a perfect 45 minute trip on a nice-sized boat called the Fantasy. Great views of the Kobe Bay while the sun was setting, hardly any other passengers on board, and the super-nice crew invited us all into the bridge where they let us sit in the captain chair and use their binoculars. Upstairs we discovered cheesy captains hats (think Captain Stubing from the Love Boat) and a fake steering wheel that the kids played with as we returned. It was a perfect trip. And with Lauren and Jacob riding free, and some coupons we had, it cost a total of 1200 Yen!


On another note, here are a few pictures from Jacob and Lauren's school. They are both loving it. And their teachers are awesome about putting pictures and video up on the class websites so we can actually see what they are doing at school. (6 and 3 year-olds are not the most forthcoming...i.e., "What did you do today?" "Nothing. I don't remember."). Jacob is really progressing with his reading and math - he can identify cones, spheres, cylinders, and rectangular prisms.


We leave you with this terrific t-shirt, which we are kicking ourselves for not just buying for Ilena! It reads: "Curious Lady Love You. She Is Very Hundsome and Lovely Tough Girl."