Koziar's Christmas Village

I completely forgot to talk about this. If you live within driving distance of Berks County and have children, you might enjoy checking out Koziar's Christmas Village. My husband and I took our 7-year old daughter over the weekend and she had a pretty good time. Basically, Koziar's is a large plot of land with various buildings entirely decorated with Christmas lights. When you walk in, there's an area to the right that has three trains running on a track around a little village. On the pond, there's a lit-up pirate ship. Nearby, there's a lit train with a couple of cars. As you walk through the village, there are buildings dressed up with themes like "Christmas Around The World." There's also an old-fashioned post office and fire station. And, of course, the kids can have their pictures taken with Santa Claus.

For the adults, there are a couple of gift stores where you can buy ornaments or nutcrackers or little things for the kids. My in-laws bought my daughter light-up reindeer antlers and a light-up Rudolph nose. There were also a variety of really cute hats, including a pig with wings and a blue elephant. If you get cold or hungry, there's plenty of hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and cookies.

Just make sure you get there early! Otherwise the line is huge!

Game review: Escape the Museum 2

Back in April 2008, I talked about Escape the Museum, a rather innovative hidden object game. A couple of days ago, I played the sequel, Escape the Museum 2. The underlying basis of the original game is there, however, they have changed a few things that make the game a little difficult. Each area you need to explore has two pieces: a hidden object section (and there's usually more than one of those) and a 'fix it' section. The hidden object part is pretty basic. They give you a list and you find the objects. Then, for the 'fix it' section, you use certain pieces from those hidden object lists to fix whatever is impeding your progress to the next area. Both of these are fine and dandy. Unfortunately, the game has added an ultimate 'fix it' section where you need to pick up pieces of a bridge that will be used later. These pieces are usually hidden under other objects in the main area. For instance, you have to move a pile of bricks to find one piece. The only way you know a piece is under those bricks is the slight shuddering of the pile when you mouse over it. If you don't find the piece, the area is marked "Unfinished." I don't know about you...but it bugs me to have an unfinished area so I had to keep going back to try to find whatever I was missing.

I really would like this game if it didn't have those 'Ultimate Hidden Object' pieces. Not only are they impossible to find, but you don't even know they are there unless you stumble onto them or leave an area to see it marked "Unfinished." It doesn't show up in any list at all. If that part doesn't bother you, then it's a fun game that I think you would enjoy.

Review: Talk Like Singing

Title: Talk Like Singing Cast: Shingo Katori: Tarlow Jay Kabira: Dyson Keiko Horiuchi: Nimoy Shinya Niiro: Brother, Dyson's assistant

Plot: From his earliest days, Tarlow could only sing. People around him tried to get him to talk, but to no avail. Tarlow didn't realize he was different from other people. He thought that he was speaking just like everyone else. For a time, he became a celebrity. One unfortunate day, he sang about a terrible typhoon and society shunned him. Psychiatrist Dr. Dyson and Linguist Dr. Nimoy try to find the reason for Tarlow's singing so they can cure him.

Review: When I went into the play, I was under the impression that it would be completely in Japanese. The play ended up being half in Japanese and half in English. A majority of Dr. Dyon's lines are in English and whenever there was an important scene, it was either performed twice (once in Japanese and once in English) or there were creative subtitles for the conversation. This really did help us in understanding the plot better. It also added a bit of humor to the show.

All of the performances from the actors were excellent. Jay Kabira brilliantly brought the fabulously egotistical Dyson to life and stole almost every scene he was in. Meanwhile, Shingo Katori's singing was spot-on, which amazed me since the show ran for just about 2 hours straight without an intermission. I think this proves what a talent he is. And adding to the mix, Shinya Niiro, who played a couple of very different characters, held his own despite his characters not having a lot of lines. Many of his characters relied totally on body language, which can be extremely difficult in live theater. I will definitely be keeping an eye open for him in the future! Finally, Keiko Horiuchi. She did well in the Japanese sections, but she seemed to struggle just a little in the English parts. Luckily, she still managed to bring across the complete emotional change that Nimoy goes through. Despite not knowing any of these actors personally, I felt very proud of their performances.

Unfortunately, the show has ended it's US run. I believe there will be a short run in Japan, but I do not have any information on that. If you are lucky enough to be able to see Talk Like Singing, please do. I think you will be extremely pleased.

JDorama review: Blood: The Last Vampire

Title: Blood: The Last Vampire Also known as: Last Blood Release date: 5/29/09 Genre: Supernatural action Cast: Jun Ji-hyun (Gianna Jun), Allison Miller, Koyuki Plot: Saya (Jun) is a half-human-half-vampire that hunts and kills other vampires while searching for Onigen (Koyuki), the head vampire. What is good: Koyuki is gorgeous as Onigen. What is bad: The cinematography was weird. Letter rating: C+ Overall: I enjoyed the Blood: The Last Vampire anime, so I was intrigued to see how it would be translated into a live action movie. For the most part, the movie was entertaining. However, the fight scenes (and there are a lot of them) seemed tired. Even when Saya was fighting a huge mob of vampires, the entire fight was pretty predictable. It was a decent movie to watch. Just don't expect anything overly impressive from it and you should be fine.

JDorama review: L: Change the WorLd

Title: L: Change the WorLd Release date: 2/9/08 Genre: Supernatural, Detective Cast: Matsuyama Kenichi, Fukuda Narushi, Fukuda Mayuko, Kudoh Youki Plot: During the final 23 days of his life, L takes the time to solve one more case. This one involves a bio-terrorist group intent on killing most of the Earth's population with a virus. What is good: Matsuyama is as good as ever! What is bad: Well...I fell asleep...that can't be a good thing, right? Letter rating: C Overall: I really wanted to like this sort-of sequel to Death Note. Like many others, L is one of my favorite characters. Unfortunately, this case seems to be a pretty big waste of his talents. The only reason L seems to be involved in this case is because people just randomly send things (and people) to him. As much as I wanted to watch the movie, I did fall asleep because it was so dull. L deserved a better ending than this.

Game review: Keys to Manhattan

A couple of days ago, my daughter asked if we could play a hidden object game together. Since I love spending time with her, I agreed. She chose Keys to Manhattan. In the game, you are Emily, an artist trying to save her childhood home. Her uncle, who she lived with after her parents died, has gone missing as well. As Emily, you have to track down the items needed to restore the house, as well as try to find her uncle.

After playing so many extremely difficult hidden object games, I was hoping that this one would be easy enough for my daughter to play. Many times you can't tell the difference between a 'family' hidden object game (where the puzzles are easy enough for the kids to play with their family members) and an 'adult' hidden object game (where you pretty much have to have ESP in order to find some of the items). Luckily, Keys to Manhattan came through for us. Not only were the hidden object puzzles adequately suited to a multi-player game, there were also parts of the house that needed to be aligned with their outlines in the house. We both had tons of fun playing and I hope to see more games like this in the future.

Parenting: Fun For The Kids

Over the weekend, I took my daughter and one of her friends to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. While it is mostly geared toward the younger crowd (around 4 to 6), the older kids (7 to 10) will have some fun as well.

There are a number of areas to explore. The first floor has a carousel (which I didn't count as 'exploring'), a water-themed play area, a transportation area, and a sky-themed area. The water area has smocks for little ones so they don't get soaked. A river, which is arm-height for children, moseys around the area. The kids use various buttons and levers to move rubber ducks and boats through the waterways. The sky area has things like a two-seated bicycle that moves flat 'umbrellas' when you pedal. There is also an area where you can build an airplane out of foam pieces, send it up to the ceiling, and see how it floats back to the ground. In between the water and the sky is the transportation themed area. There are cars to build, a SEPTA bus to 'ride,' an SUV to fix up at the service station, and some construction vehicles to pick up balls.

Heading downstairs, the second floor (yes, I think it's weird that the bottom floor is the second) has an Alice in Wonderland themed area, a centennial area, and a...I'm not sure how to explain it other than a play area. The Alice exhibit is wonderful. There is a huge maze that the kids run around in to see various pieces from the story, as well as various characters. This was the biggest hit with our crew. Next to that is the centennial area. To be honest, this was the most boring of all the exhibits. There was little for the children to do and all of the historical stuff bored them. However, next up was an area filled with "dress up" areas. There was a construction set, a McDonalds set, a hospital set, a grocery store set, a shoe store set...and probably more that I forgot! In each set, there were costumes for the kids and various items for them to use to play pretend. However, it was quite crowded.

Amid each section, there were separate areas for children under 3 to play. However, we didn't have any children that young with us so we weren't allowed in those areas. There was also a very good puppet show that engaged the kids and their imaginations. I have to admit that I thought the kids would be bored there. I was under the impression that the museum was geared toward the 5-year old are group. While that is true, there are still plenty of things to keep the older kids occupied. It was a really nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Game review: Princess Isabella - A Witch's Curse

It's been awhile since my daughter and I played a video game together. We decided to give Princess Isabella: A Witch's Curse a try. You play Princess Isabella. She has been away and, when she returns, she finds the castle under an evil spell with all of the people locked inside mirrors. The princess needs to find who is behind the evil, while rescuing her family.

Big Fish Games has classified this as a hidden object game. However, it is so much more. Each room has a number of puzzles contained within. Some of them are hidden object but others are jigsaw puzzles or areas where you need to use an object you are holding in order to open the next area of the room or 'trivia' questions. We found this to be a great game because, while there are some areas that my daughter could do by herself, there were also areas that I needed to do by myself or that we needed to work on together. It was a great way to spend a few hours with my kid. I highly recommend it to any parents wanting a little extra time with the little one. (And by 'little one,' I mean in the 6 - 10 age range...)

JDorama review: Mr. Brain

Title: Mr. Brain Broadcast dates: 5/23/09 - 7/11/09 Number of episodes: 8 Genre: Detective, Comedy Cast: Kimura Takuya, Ayase Haruka, Mizushima Hiro, Kagawa Teruyuki Plot: Tsukumo Ryusuke (Takuya) has recently moved into the Institute of Police Science (IPS) as their resident "brain scientist." Even though his methods of assisting the police are quite unorthodox, he somehow manages to become one of the most beloved scientists in the IPS. What is good: Absolutely every bit of it is good What is bad: It was a little annoying that the last few cases ended up being 2-parters, therefore leaving us with cliffhangers instead of solving the case during the episode...but that can be a good things sometimes. Letter rating: A+ Overall: I originally downloaded this series because Gackt, my very favorite Japanese rock star, guest starred in the second episode. To show how amazingly awesome Mr. Brain is, I watched that second episode before ever watching the first episode AND I watched it raw, despite barely knowing the Japanese language, and I absolutely fell in love with the characters. Despite barely knowing what anyone was saying, the acting and the characters themselves were so likeable and eccentric that I knew I had to watch it subtitled. Adding to that, once I watched the first episode subtitled, I had to get my husband to watch it with me because I knew he would love the show as well. Out of all the series I've watched and loved, this one is now my absolute favorite and new series will have to try really hard to do better.

Game review: Mr Jones' Graveyard Shift

When I saw the title of this game, I knew I had to play it. Something called Mr Jones' Graveyard Shift would either be awesome or awful. It turns out that it is a time management game. You play as Mr. Jones, owner of the local graveyard. Your job is to fill your customers' requests for their loved ones' funerals. Some want specific flowers, some don't want trees...there's a lot that they ask for, but, the gameplay for each is pretty much the same.

I actually had to play the game twice. The first time, I screwed up royally and had to start over. The second time, I figured out where I messed up and made sure to not make the same mistake again. That is when the fun kicked in. I didn't think I would actually enjoy arranging funerals. After all, it's a rather morbid thought. But it was lots of fun. At the very least, it's a good Halloween game!