Maplewoodians Unite!

So on Monday of Golden Week, we finally got to meet the other Maplewood family (that we know of) living in Japan - the Kasdans - quite famous for their own blog.  Mike, Ilena and their kids Jacob and Lauren are living in Kobe for a year and packing a ton of adventure into their 12 months here.   

They good-naturedly schlepped to Roppongi Hills and we had a fantastic morning together. We immediately hit it off and the kids fell all over each other.  Since they had to catch their flight back to Kobe that afternoon, we hung out for a bit and then made haste to ascend the 54 story Mori Tower which is part of the Roppongi Hills complex.  The 360 degree view of Tokyo was astounding.  And climbing further up onto the sky deck/helicopter pad was even crazier (and windy).

Here are Lauren, Jacob and Max with a view of Tokyo behind them. 

  

Here's are some shots of the kids coloring fish scales.  (The carp is a symbol for Boy's Day which was May 5th.  Like salmon, carp apparently swim upstream and therefore symbolize strength.)

Then we got in line to go out on the sky deck.  Rich was holding my purse (since I was carrying Max) and was made to put it in a plastic bag. We are unsure why but as he only person we saw carrying a plastic bag, it must have been some sort of punishment. 

We got a few pictures up at the top.  Max desperately wanted to run around but I had to keep a hold of him as we weren't allowed off the wooden deck and into the heliopad area.

Maplewoodians Unite!