Tokyo Ect. (saturday!)

Welcome back to the travel log! Don't you think it's funny that I'm vain enough to think people would actually read this? My family doesn't even read this blog. I talk to my brothers every month (ok, actually every 3-4 months) and they always say, "oh yah, I never read your blog, sorry." Which is peculiar because I don't even bring up my blog, they just let me know they don't read it. How funny.

Anyways- ever heard of the Hamarikyu gardens? It's one of Tokyo's beautiful parks hidden in the midst of a busling city.

This post goes out to gorgeous Marie and how she rocked the umbrella stroller for a week. No naps, just burned through every day and was really good for doing "boring adult things" and having an anti-climatic vacation trip that started with Disneyland, and ended with a few subway rides. Marie, you're awesome.

I would also like to take a minute to mourn these beautiful glasses she's wearing. They were 15,000 Yen or $200. The second the salesman offered them to me I literally laughed out loud and said, "you know she's gonna lose these, do you have anything cheaper?"
He laughed back.
Goodbye awesome glasses. I hope you have fun riding the subways where ever you are.

These gardens are an oasis in the middle of chaos.

When we first arrived it rained, and rained, but after about 20 minutes the rest of the day was a delight. And the garden was so peaceful it put Mina right to sleep.

I'm convinced the plant behind them is an Aloe plant.

Here are my parents in a giant field of peonys.

My dad loves tori gates. I think someday I will build him some.

From the gardens we took a Sumida River boat cruise around the Sumida River that edges the West side of Tokyo, and Odaiba island. Mina was all about it.

Marie enjoyed waving to passersby.

And shares an inside joke with my mom. I think she's gotta pee too.

Oh Colonel! How you make everything feel familiar!

We then arrived in Asakusa, home to the oldest temple in Tokyo, the Sensoji Temple built in the 700AD (but don't quote me on that).

It may be old, but it's not against a little capitalism. Here we are at the shops that line the road to the temple. A tourist hot spot for sure, but we were one of very few white people there so we had a our picture taken quite a bit (by strangers). It could be that we were white, but now I'm realizing it was because Mina was naked in her bjorn.

In Japan you can find soft serve ice cream on every corner. And occasionally you can find anywhere from 3-30 flavors. My favorites are pineapple and sesame seed (haha not, I just wanted to bring up that they have the flavor sesame seed, it's ok).

Protected from birds are large 20 foot statues of Gods of Thunder, Wind and other elements.

Infact, usually in pagodas such as this, each level represents an element of the earth.
Thats ok, my parents didn't care for my naration of the guide book either.

Finally, the Sensoji Temple!

It's not my religion, but to each his own, I like to say.

 

Oh Mina! You are shameless!

 

My Dad did a great job of pushing Marie.

It was a long day, but finally our first Japanese meal with my parents! I've been raving about the food for months now so I really wanted them to have a great experience. However, somehow, before we even sat down I got into a fight with the cook over whether or not this was a smoking or non smoking establishment. It was difficult considering we were speaking different languages. He seemed like he really WANTED me to smoke and handed me an ash tray. I kept pointing to my kids and saying "no" or "i-e" in Japanese. His food ending up burning and he was MAD. I felt so terrible we ended up eating there. The food was horrible and I'm pretty sure Brett ordered horse meat. Yikes, at least things could only get better from there.

And that was Saturday in Asakusa!