After 8 days in a hotel, we got to move to an apartment yesterday. We were in a very lovely hotel but with two kids we really need even just two rooms and a kitchen of sorts. To make things more fun, Brian made the closet into a theater for the kids (put the car seat, kids, and a dvd player in there, close the door=instant fun!) Even more fun when the Pocky treats I had up high fell and hit Colin in the head. We do enjoy Pocky!

Jane looks a little happier in the second photo.

We have started to travel with our Automoblox cars. Colin got one for Christmas and we added to his collection for his birthday. Both kids have lots of fun making different cars and they have been a good travel toy.

We travel with a great port-a-crib made by Phil & Ted (our stroller maker). It weighs less than 6 pounds and is small enough to fit in my carry-on luggage. But unfolded, the crib is bigger than the average port-a-crib. Our friends who have traveled a lot through Nepal and India with kids gave us this great little dog tent. We made a little bed for Colin in the tent every night, and it is fun to have an extra place to be. Sometime we have story time in the tent. Only about half of me fits in, but still fun. The tent is great because it is super tiny to pack but very fun.

There was a lot of jumping on the hotel bed.

Our kids love capes. I brought some of the Little People I have been collecting and saved some packaging for Jane to play with. We dedicated the drawers of the hotel room to toys.

And if your 2 year old draws on the textured fabric walls of your fancy Japanese hotel, let us know. We got the marks off pretty well. I usually travel with a magic sponge but the fabric wall ate my sponge. Jane is such a stinker. On her own when she colors or draws, she makes neat little circles but in about 2 seconds, she made some very big circles with a hotel pen.

Colin called this the arm rest toilet. Be careful using it as an arm rest, leaning could result in some surprise spay. We also have a super fancy toilet in the new apartment but no arm rest.

We have eaten a lot of the instant noodles. They are very tasty but may not be the most nutritive things we can eat.

We have lost these great views of the Port.

But we gained this view. We are in a very nice area of Kobe and we think there is a playground not too far. PLUS there is a vending machine with banana milk very close.