Happy Birthday to Mummy

For my birthday this year I wanted to keep the tradition of getting a babysitter (Nana) and doing something in the city. We went to the King Tut exhibit this year, and it was awesome! I love all things Egypt. I would love to go there, but I'm kind of scared of terrorist attacks and it costs money and stuff like that. So this is as close as I get to Egypt for now. They make the exhibit feel like you're uncovering the tomb for the first time. One of the most amazing things I learned that I probably should have already known is that by the time King Tut rose to the throne the great pyramids were already over 1,000 years old! Yea, I should have paid more attention in my history class. I learned that the hieroglyph for life is ankh. It was all over the artifacts. And I learned that one of the the young pharaoh's hobbies was hunting for ostriches.
My brother just made a joke about the uncommon toot exhibit. He's always ruining things for me like when I wanted to name my kitten Twinkle he said he was going to call it tinkle. brothers...

On the way home we were passing by Japantown and decided to stop for dinner. Mmmmm. Most of the stores were closed, but we still managed to get dinner, yummy bread, and a delicious ice cream crepe. No funny photo booth pictures this time.

The ice cream crepe comes with a cute teddy bear face.

Japantown すごい！

My long search for Melon Pan in America is now over. You can buy it in Japantown duh! Why didn't I think of that before? I didn't really know Japantown existed. But we had a GREAT time yesterday wandering through the different Japanese shops, eating adorable sugary snacks, and taking dorky photos.

I know many former missionaries who said they lived off of Melon Pan during their time in Japan. My favorite was the chocolate chip kind or チョコメロンパン。What is Melon Pan? A sweet bread with some kind of sugary topping. There must be some addictive chemical in the topping because Americans just can't get enough of it. Does it really taste like melon? Who cares?
I'm also standing in front of a store completely devoted to Okinawan goods! I was in Okinawa for a year so it was so fun to see all the shisa (lion type figurines) brightly colored fabrics, beni imo (purple potato), goya (bitter cucumber), kuro sato (black sugar), etc. and excitedly explain everything to Britton. Talking to the woman at the register made me realize how many words I've already forgotten. My brain felt like I had just poured cement in it.

Here's the Peace Pavilion. It's where you stand in front of the pagoda and do the peace sign while someone takes a picture of you. Very Japanese.

Britton enjoyed many Japanese snacks. One of the most popular in America is the Pocky. Here Britton is modeling the Men's Pocky. He let me try a little bit of one. It tasted very manly.
Here we have the Japanese crepe. It's like an ice cream sundae stuffed in a warm crepe. You have to eat it quickly.
So you don't think we ate sugar all day we also tried one of the authentic Japanese restaurants, Mifune. Will tasted his first seaweed, mmm... We had steaming bowls of udon, and Britton tried the chicken and egg bowl (Oyako Donburi). They also had Okonomiyaki which I've tried to make on my own, but failed miserably.

For all you Hello Kitty fans they also have a Sanrio store. (Erin...) Did you know Hello Kitty is celebrating her 35th anniversary? That's like 245 in cat years.

Another part of modern Japanese culture is taking pictures at the Puri Kura (picture booth).

Oh yeah, there's two more poses where that came from.

Britton says we don't need to go to Japan anymore.