Hi!
Hi! We live in Kawasaki, a fabulous city sandwiched between Tokyo and another city you might have heard: Yokohama. And at the heart of that city is an amazing downtown district called Minatou Mirai. For Ben and Debbie and their family, this will be their first time here and for us, we have some new surprises along the way. So join us for this fun winter afternoon stroll through one of Japan’s premiere districts, Minatou Mirai. Look at this! Yokohama back there, man. Look!
How beautiful man! [Life in Japan Theme Song] Ben, first impressions downtown Yokohama?
I'd come again, I'd come again. Our family has been here a couple of times before Cousins! but today we plan on exploring some new areas. Red brick district?
Yep, this is it. With kids in tow, you never know what kind of photo op you may have One, two, three, quick! Three, Two, One... This seems like the place for everyone to take pictures, and the ladies got inspired. Wow-
It's like the original docks. And now it's just kind of a fun, fun place. Can you go in one of them?
You can. Guys, can Eliana get a back ride? Eliana, you want a back ride?
I want a back ride. Oh you want one too! We came here to get the key modeling shots, right? That's right. Senior pictures. Senior pictures, here they are. Four years early, but...
It'll come soon enough. Debbie the photographer here. Working her magic...
Yea! Got it. OK now let mommy and I — and Debbie do it. Can't leave out these sisters! Oh yea.
That's right. OK, first smiling and then serious. First smiling?
Yea. I want to see this.
OK, got it. Now serious.
Serious. Got it. Let's see—what's it look like, Ben? Serious — smiling. Cute!
If you had glasses on... Here, put these. Everyone's getting in on it. Look at those specs, Izzy! You know what? We should sell glasses with the reflection of the Tokyo skyline in it... And just sell them, and you can be wherever you are and take it and it's like you're in Tokyo. Oh my goodness!
I'm driving! I guess so, huh? My goodness. Alright let's go! Inside is full of shops, perfect for those without kids with them. But for us, we’ll just move on for now. Oh no no no Mommy, don't get distracted. Uh oh mommy's getting distracted...
OK, don't touch anything please. Outside in the winter there’s a happening ice-skating rink that looked quite inviting. But everyone had something else on their mind: lunch. It's like Shibuya Scramble!
Doner/Kebab Uh oh — street food is looking awful good right now. Awful good! Dude — natural garden in winter. Do you want to do the thing, the last episode that I swiped, and then I swiped back and then we teleported? Alright let's try it... ready?
3, 2, 1 Oh yeah! Good swipe! Joshua really loves his jump cuts. If only you could use them in real life, like to the part where we’re eating lunch. Look at the building over there. There's a big hole! Aw! Getting a free ride!? How do I get one? Oh, you're too big. I'm too big?!
Yea! Too big?!
Yea. At least we wouldn’t have to walk far. Do you see that ropeway? OK World Porters and lunch, here we go. Inside we ordered our food and waited for the pager to ring. Whoa, how about this place? Is this cool, Sarah? Yea, I'm just going to be touching this and when it shakes I'm going to know. How long is it going to be?
I don't know. Oh my! My burger came, look at that! Can I see?
A big ol' Hawaiian burger and fries and a special drink. Uh oh Ben, what do you got there? Okinawa salt-cookie ice cream Stop it!
It's amazing! Stop it! I'm going to have to try some. Double scoop.
Oh man. Every day in Okinawa Ben ate this ice cream. Every day! I haven't even been there yet!
Almost every day. I'm going to have to do it. Almost. Almost. What did you girls get?
This? This tastes like America's chocolate milk. America's chocolate milk?!
It's so good! I love America's chocolate milk.
Oh wow. After lunch, things would get more intense. Oh!
Anna, what time do you think it is? I want to ride that yellow one!
Yea, me too! Oh my goodness, look at the yellow one going... I want to do the yellow one, and the pink one and the ferris wheel! It's kind of like the bandit, but much smaller. And so we entered Cosmo World, Minatou Mirai’s downtown theme park famous for it’s coaster and giant ferris wheel. This is wild. OK, here's the moment of truth. Let's see the prices though, guys.
And let's see what the lines are like. You pay per ride at Cosmo World and each ride is priced differently. Fortunately we could get tickets near the entrance to most of the rides, unfortunately it was a Saturday and super busy. But that didn’t stop us from finding at least one ride to go on, even if it looked a bit risky. What a big freekin' ferris wheel! That's just big, Dude! It's kind of slow. I wonder what time it is. You don't get wet because he water goes forward and sideways. Are you brave enough to try it? Yea, I really want to do it. We did it before! Oh did you?! You didn't get wet? No, I don't think so. We did it when we were pretty little. The scream scoreboard called out to the kids like a beacon in the night. Is that a scream score there?
Yea. Really?! We're going to get number one I think. Oh, you're going to try to be number one?! Zero. Joshua, what are we doing?! We're going to scream. Bye! Goodbye!! Bye Evie! Listen for yourselves and see who you think is the loudest… Here comes Debbie!
Here comes Debbie and Evie. Here they go! If you guess the girls, you’re right. They screamed so loud they got 5th place! Since we didn’t want to wait over an hour for any of the other rides, we decided to show Ben and Debby some of the other highlights of the area and we were not disappointed. We're going to watch a show.
OK. We showed our appreciation and Momma chan got us all drinks You got a drink, huh?
Chai latte. Next we went into Queen’s Square, down the impressive escalators to the Minatou Mirai Train Station that runs beneath the city. Guys, do you remember doing this? It's been a long time since we did it. If you come here by train, this is how you arrive. It is a long one, ahh! Enjoying a drink, huh, while we go. The train will arrive right there. Maybe we'll see it. This massive atrium goes several stories above and below ground, a most impressive sight. Oh look there's a train! One on that side and one on this side! You almost could just jump on top of it. I know! It's like you could just jump right on it! Here comes the rush! Ah! The rush Anna, the rush! Anyone who loves Japan’s infrastructure should come visit this station. Well what's happening over there, huh girls? Look like you have a friend... Hello friend. Soon we were back outside for a last bit of exploration into unknown territory. I found a ginormous pirate ship! Pirate ship!
Whoa! Well I don't know if it's a pirate ship... Oh! Get up, Dude! Get up, get up. Going on a bridge...
Anna Cakes Going on a bridge. A very scenic bridge. Nippon Maru Yokohama [ship name] Look at the Jelly Fish! A Jelly Fish out in the wild!
In the middle of nowhere. Does anyone know: is it Strawberry or Peach Jelly Fish? No, it's blueberry...
A blueberry jellyfish?! It's blue. It's not Cosmo World, it's Jellyfish world. My goodness, this almost seems like a Japanese version of Singapore, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Isn't that crazy? Who knew we had Singapore right by us, huh? That's right! Is there a huge Louis Vuitton somewhere out there?
That's right, where is it? We soon got a clear view of the Nippon Maru, which is not a pirate ship but a retired training vessel. Oh look at this — alright!
100 years! Wow! What a ship here, huh? Right there it says "Japanese something Memorial Park" Circle.
Maru. That is amazing. You can get tickets to go see it, but it's not open right now. That would be cool to go see. Do we have everybody?
Yeah. We ready to roll? Let's roll? With kids you only get a limited amount of time to explore before the happy thoughts run out. Sometimes you need a little dance to fill them back up. Silly dance.
OK, silly dance, do it. Wow. That's definitely a silly dance! Way to go! This is a silly dance! Is this the Silly Dance Club? OK everyone altogether, ready? Silly Dance. Eliana has the silliest dance. I think I saw Aunt Debbie photo-bombing that. Dance-bombing. Those look like fun, don't they? Those little boat tours in there? Watch, that boat is going to turn into a bus! Right before our eyes! Oh look at that spray that it's going to go through. How cool! They're going to wash it?
Of the salt water probably. Anna can you believe it's only 3:05 according to the giant ferris wheel? No. Oh man! 3:05 Even though our day at Minatou Mirai was done for now, there was still one last thing for the video. On the way back the kids were rehearsing a special number to present here at the end. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you want, please watch the song we are about to do. Wow!
Yeah. Impressive, impressive! Oh the bow! You missed the bow!
Oh the bow! The bow! Very nice. We did it perfectly in the car, just FYI.
