Some things we did over the weekend

(Note: I'm attempting to change my kid's names for this blog - to go along with my Mrs. Mike theme.  If you don't know what I am talking about, read the "About me" section on the sidebar.  I feel really funny calling them by these pretend names, though.  I may change my mind and just call them by their real names if I can't get used to it.)

Tried tako yaki.

It was good as long as I didn't think about the suction cups on the tentacles.

We got to try tako yaki because Mike and Beaver made friends with some Japanese dads at a nearby park a couple of weeks ago.  Last Sunday we took a walk to the park and were greeted by a couple of little girls running toward us calling, "Beaver!  Beaver!" They were followed by a dad hurrying over with his two sons and their french bulldog, and then another guy and his wife (parents to one of the little girls), and pretty soon they were all chatting away like old friends.  Introductions were made all around, and we tried to get Bear to play with their kids, but he can be shy - especially when he can't speak the kid's language.  I can understand his hesitation, but his shyness often ends up looking like unfriendliness.  Anyway, before we left to go back home, one of the families invited us to a tea party at their house the following week.  Can you believe that?  We just met them at a park, and the next thing we know they are inviting us to tea!  We were happy to accept, although we had to explain that we don't drink tea.  So yesterday we spent the afternoon at our new friend's house and I helped make tako yaki.  It was fun, even though I don't speak Japanese and they don't really speak English.  Afterwards we all walked to our house, because our friends said they would like to walk through our neighborhood, but they are nervous because of all the "Private Property!  No Trespassing!" signs.  They commented on how big our house was, although I don't think it is all that much bigger than their houses.  Their neighborhood is brand new and the houses are very nice.

That is our tako yaki story.

   On Saturday we wanted to go up this mountain.   

So we got in this tram.

And went to this cool revolving observatory where we met these cute little girls who were very excited to talk to us.  Some kids pay no attention to us.  Some really want to talk to us.  A few have been scared of us, and one ran screaming to his parents.

Then we got on this cute ski lift thing that played Hawaiian-sounding music and took us to another part of the mountain.

There were lots of fun trails...

And fun parks to explore.

Before we left the clouds cleared away enough that we could see the Akashi Ohashi - the longest suspension bridge in the world.