Day 4 EPCOT continued...
We made our way over to our family's favorite country at EPCOT, Japan. We like the huge department store there. We adore the tin toy museum. And most of all, we love Miyuki the candy maker! She totally rocks!!
While we were walking around the World Showcase, our Little Prince had fallen fast asleep. Dh offered to sit down and watch over him during his nap. Smooth move. In one fell swoop he got himself out of shopping, into a seated position and checked his work email without me giving him a frowning face for doing so.
While dh checked in with work and our Little Prince slept, the rest of us headed into Mikimoto to do more than a little bit of shopping. It's a family tradition for us to go shopping here on every WDW trip. My boys are totally into the unique toys and other items they have for sale here. Some of our favorite finds this time were the Monchichi toys that Goofy and Stitch got (they got two of them that were dressed up like soccer playing monchichis). You wouldn't believe how many people I heard walking by singing the ditty "Monchichi, Monchichi...." as they saw the toys! I remember them from when I was growing up and they are just as cute as I remembered (maybe even cuter). We also stocked up on our favorite Japanese candy, Botan Ame Rice Candy (yum!). They are tasty little citrus flavored squares of rice goodness (sort of in a gel/taffy state) that are wrapped in small pieces of edible wrappers (it looks like clear plastic but melts in your mouth). And we always pick a new food item to try out along with our tried and true favorites, this year we picked shrimp wafers. They were little styrofoamish (but not styrofoam) edible wafers that were colored pink and shrimp flavored. All I can really say about them is that they were interesting and I am glad I tried them once.
When we finally finished up shopping we hustled outside to meet up with dh. We wanted to stay in that area until Miyuki had her next show so we headed over to the tin toy museum.
This exhibit is always a big hit with our family but today, we discovered more hidden fun inside! First off, let me show you some of the awesome tin toys they have here.
While we were looking around, our Little Prince woke up and joined us in looking at all of the brightly colored tin toys. He also made fast friends with one of the CMs there. She stuck a Mickey Mouse sticker to his arm which I thought he would chew/suck off within minutes but it turns out he didn't do either but instead, we would find him staring at it from time to time. He really does love Mickey Mouse.
The CM really made an impression on us with the way she took the time to interact with our Little Prince. She spent the better part of five minutes making him smile and smiling at him. It was one of those moments that the extra effort and happy outlook that most Disney CMs seem to share really had a positive impact on our vacation.
Now for the hidden fun. The tin toy museum is home to the kid's mask station in Japan. In that same area you can also do two super cool other things (which I had no idea they offered until we were told by the very sweet CM who played with our
Little Prince). You can fold origami figures (animals, boxes, flowers, etc) or make super neat FREE little wind up robots! Our boys chose to do both and loved every second of it!
Stitch and
Aladdin both chose to fold a frog.
Goofy chose something different. Here is a picture of
Goofy folding the origami box that he chose. It is really neat. It is a box with a star top that opens when you pinch it. We still have all of their origami creations and little wind up robots. All of our boys rank these free creations tops of the souvenir list!
We ended up spending almost an hour inside of the tin tour museum (before it had always been a ten minutes tops look see sort of activity for us). We really had fun and we wish we would have taken the time to take a closer look way before this trip! I took a quick photo of
Aladdin while we made our way back out to Miyuki's stand in front of the department store.
We snapped one more as we took a detour through a beautiful garden and over a bridge to get to the restrooms.
About the time we arrived back at (3o minutes before her demonstration was scheduled to start) at Miyuki's stand, the rain started to come down, down, down. I have never been so thankful for a handful of 2 for $1 ponchos!
We really were lucky that we had those ponchos. Even though her demonstration area is under an overhang, the wind was blowing the rain straight in at us. In the video clips below, you can actually hear how hard the rain was coming down! As we waited for Miyuki to arrive, the boys decided that if any of them were chosen, they would ask for an orange scorpion (how they came up with that I have no idea). Miyuki showed up right on time and with a big smile! And as luck would have it (or as waiting for 30 minutes to get a front row spot would have it
) Aladdin was the first one chosen to pick an animal for Miyuki to create. I apologize in advance for how hard it is to hear her. The rain was really coming down. But the videos (I have two, you should watch them in order) show how she takes a blob of shiny melted rice candy and turns it into a miniature work of art.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNBX4vKIWmQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRiB_AoUdhU
And a few pictures for those who cannot see the movie clips. Here is Miyuki bagging up the orange scorpion.
An up-close shot of the little orange scorpion.
And the turtle she made for a couple on their honeymoon.
By the time her demonstration was over, we were all a bit damp (thanks to the ponchos we were not soaking) and we were getting a bit tired as well. Our morning had been jam packed and while our afternoon had been full of lots of slow explorations and hidden fun we didn't want to tire ourselves out today. We had a huge day coming up tomorrow...
We decided to forgo our dinner reservation at the Rose and Crown Pub and instead call it an early day and head back to the lodge for a dinner of room service and allow the electrical water parade to be our evening entertainment.
We have two troll fanatics in the family though...so we couldn't leave without stopping by to take a ride amongst the trolls and then do some troll shopping afterward in the Norway pavilion. Here are a few snapshots I got of my own little Vikings and a huge troll friend of theirs.
It was about 6:30 by the time we made it to our van and started the short drive back to the WL. A very happy surprise was in store for the boys when we returned to the room...
TO BE CONTINUED
The video is such a fun addition to the ride, gives you something to do on the long backwards ride back to earth!
It better be GONE in 2 weeks! I am sorry to hear your Little Prince isn't feeling better either...I hope that gets cleared up soon. 
But I'm not telling! 
And the pictures of the two of them and Goofy's face were just adorable!
) Last year though after months of getting him prepared, he finally went up to Mickey. That picture is priceless to me. He would have nothing to do with any of the other characters though. He would hand me his autograph book to give to each of the characters. I am hoping this year he enjoys them more. 
Here's hoping for good results. Let me know how it goes. 
. Unfortunately he did eat the tiger 
