The kids are alright!

Wife here.

Observation: Japanese kids are cuter than American kids (except for Kailey, Ali and Riley!) They're waaaay more well behaved than Australian kids (little monsters!), and most of them even make Ali look out of control!

We've noticed that kids under about 18 months, stare at everything, just like everyone elses' kids, though they do seem be able to fall asleep anywhere, in any position, at the drop of a hat. (Come to think of it, that talent stays with the Japanese into adulthood. It seems that anywhere there are adult Japanese sitting down, half of them are sleeping and the other half are text messing.)

Kids between about 2 and 4 seem pretty easy to spook. In the grocery store last night, a little guy came zooming around the end of the aisle where we were, took one look at the big, scary gaijin, braked, squeaked and went running back around the endcap yelling for his mother! Oops. We bowed a bunch to his mother when she came around the corner to investigate!

The lower elementary school kids stare and if you wave at them, they'll wave back. The upper e.s. kids will stare, then start egging each other on to come over and say "haro" to us. Then we become the most interesting thing in the museum (store, street, subway) - again.