Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Anpanman Museum AKA Baby Crack

As some of you know, Gus loves Anpanman. Anpanman is a character created by Takashi Yanase after WWII. Yanase believed sharing food is one of the greatest things people can do and that is what Anpanman does, he feeds the hungry. His head is made of anpan, a sweet bun filled with red bean paste, and he gives people his head to eat if they are hungry. His Uncle Jam is a baker and bakes Anpanman new heads. Anpanman is EVERYWHERE in Japan and I know this because Gus can spot his picture from a moving train. When we learned there is a Anpanman museum in Kobe we knew we had to take him.
Gus prepared for his big adventure with a nap. He's wearing his new shades. I did not pick out the Anpanman shirt especially for today. Gus picked it out all by himself.
It took us about 10min to get him in the front door because every image of Anpanman required full investigation and constant "Anpanman! Anpanman! Anpanman! Anpanman!" You get the idea.








As you can see, this place was built for toddlers in mind; everything is at their height.




Gus is "driving" an Anpanman submarine.


The staff were trying to get the kids to hold their arm out like Anpanman. Gus, of course, was totally adorable when he did it.
This is Anpanman's nemesis, Baikinman - Bacteria Man. He wants to stop Anpanman from feeding the hungry and spread germs all over the world.

The ball room was pretty crazy. A whole bunch of little kids with a whole bunch of big, bouncy balls.

Here is a video of Gus getting all excited about Western Anpanman and the "ho-shees."