03 October 2011

A Special Form of Torture

I've decided that theme parks are a special form of torture designed to drive parents absolutely batty. In the last week we've been to three theme parks.

First was the Anpanman Museum in Yokohama. Other than the typically bad food and high prices, it was short and the girls were generally well behaved until lunch time. From that point forward it was nothing but whining and temper tantrums until we got on the train home an hour later. My rating: two aspirin.

Second was the Studio Ghibli Museum. This was one that I would have really enjoyed, except that the girls wanted only to play on the Nekobasu and nothing else would do. After making a beeline to the room with the Cat Bus (and dealing with Alisa having a nervous breakdown from fear of the giant stuffed cat), we spent the rest of the time in the cafe dealing with hungry kids who wanted nothing actually on the menu. At least they served beer. My rating: one aspirin.

Today was the penultimate in theme parks, Disneyland. I actually enjoyed myself by the fourth time through "Its a Small World". It was relaxing and we got to sit down - much better than the 80 minute wait to get our picture taken with Mickey Mouse. Still, there probably wasn't a single moment throughout the day when I didn't hear some screaming kid somewhere within earshot. Usually it was one of my kids doing the screaming. Altogether we probably had about three total breakdowns and six or seven good cries from the rides. There were an order of magnitude more laughs and smiles, though. At least it was good exercise having a child in my arms or on my shoulders for 14 hours in a single day. I shouldn't really complain; I'd do it again in a heartbeat and did have fun. My rating: six aspirin spread throughout the day at 6 hour intervals.

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