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!

Tokyo Ect. (friday)

After months of planning, eye-brow-scrunching, and lots and lots of penny saving, on Labor Day weekend we finally made it to Tokyo.

All the nuances and such made it a little over whelming, like subway riding, but all -in-all it was incredible.

It was fun going from Misawa, a town of roughly 40,000 to Tokyo, the home of over 13 million people!

We took the bullet train down (3 hours compared to the 9 if you drive) and it was super fun.

Marie enjoyed getting on the subways when we arrived in Tokyo. Mostly because we were in such close proximity of other people that it was ok to kick them and still look relatively innocent.

However, this post will be short. It was our first day, and on our first day we went to...

Tokyo Disney!!!

.... and apparently it was SO FUN that even our camera decided not to come home with us, but live there instead. I told my camera he would probably get stolen, but he wouldn't listen. What a freak.

Oh well, Google images exists for a reason, so enjoy a picture of someone else's little girl at Tokyo Disney:

But for the record the princesses were white, or of Scandinavian or European descent (Whatever Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast are supposed to be) they were very pretty, and the princes were actually men. The best part was Marie was the only little girl they could talk to because she spoke English! My favorite part of the whole day was standing behind a huge group of Japanese adults (kids are mostly all in school now) and have Sleeping Beauty call out to Marie, "Come here little princess!" She and Prince spent a good 3 minutes codling Marie and talking about princess-like-things. It was so sweet. The look on Marie's face was pure joy. I am sad I have lost those pictures. I hope we can go back soon and recreate that day. It might be hard considering Japan's fickle weather. If it's not sticky humid hot then it's raining. Our day at Disney was supposed to be hit by a typhoon, but it turned out slightly windy, and the weather was great. On a sad note, the Typhoon hit lower Japan and caused a landslide that killed a lot of people. It's not a good year for Japan.
But back on a brighter note, my parents met us in Tokyo that night and brought their camera, so I will spend the next 5-6 posts documenting the trip with their pictures.

anyone have a recommendation for a cool new camera? My birthday is coming up and i'm feeling spendy....

I would like to thank Mike Smith!

Most women my age spend their craft  time making cute hair bows for their girls, or really cool photo albums. I choose to make reasonably priced fabric into "newish" looking couches.
It took only 3 months, but I coverd 2 couches and a large chair. Yee haw! All with a cheap sewing machine.

I would like to take a moment to thank Mike Smith, for giving me practice on making him couch cushion covers several years ago, and my dad for driving me to JoAnns, and all the ramp agents who had to unwittingly carry a 75lb bag of fabric onto the plane that got me back to Japan last May.

I'm not sure how I feel about how the smaller chair turned out.
Let's just say it's a conversation piece.

Mina Tomadachi

 Check out these two little cougars. They are just getting ready for the weekend. And as a side note, you might want to notice the couches in the background, because you...won't...see...them...AGAIN!  Rach has been a little busybody, acting all Martha Stewartish, whipping up new couch covers. Also, check these girls out.

We decided to go boating again. And it was super fun. This time we discarded the tube and strapped on the skiis. Rachel popped right up, much to her surprise. This was the first time we've ever been water skiing together, and I was quite impressed. Plus, CHECK OUT THE PANTS!!! That's my Rach, rocking it with pants on.

Okay, we didn't really discard the tube. He's our lovable buddy that takes no skill to own AND it is super fun.  We both hopped on the tube and decided to let Marie drive us around.

Then we put on our little japanese outfit, walked out the gate, and checked out the latest festival.

Mina tomadachi. It means, "everybody's friend" in Japanese. At least it means something sort of along those lines. And she is mina tomadachi.

These aren't the most exciting videos, but whatever, that's all we got.

I'm on a BOAT!

If Brett were typing right now he would give you a witty, short update on our weekend.

If Marie were typing right now she would probably mention she went on a boat, but also mention that she "had no toys on the boat." Then she would probably sing the Wonder Pets theme song and then mention the phrases "sixty-six pounds" and "wad you say?" Something we hear alot of lately. I know, I don't get it either.

If Mina were typing it would look like this: oiueoru#@#$WERDCddj (and then nothing because she has a tendency to knock the keyboard off the desk). But if she could formulate her feelings it would go something like this: "Bananas are great. I want milk. I'm trying very hard to take off my diaper at all times. I'm naked most of the time because it is so hot in this cruel world. I will try and sleep in Mom's bed until I am 100 years old." Good luck with that Mina.

But none of the above are blogging. It's me, Rachel. And I will tell you how hot and stale the air is tonight. How Marie is probably sweating a little in her room and bugs are sneaking in because all the windows are open in the hope that it will rain tonight. Mina has a heat rash on her back. And I officially, unequivocally hate AUGUST.

Oh Air Conditioning, let me count the ways how I love thee...

But I will interrupt this pity party for a picture break:
I


Brett got certified to rent a boat!
Marie approves!

Sharing a secret.

Good Times!

I will go dream of cool water. If anyone wants to send me a $700 air conditioner you have my blessing.

kinda boring...might want to skip this one

We were lounging around too much on Sunday afternoon so we decided to to take a little family walk down to the lake. We kind of missed the sunset, but the lake wanted us to still take a couple of pictures. And when Lake Ogawara talks, you obey.  He's a fun lake to have right around the corner, and hopefully we can keep him on our side. I finally got certified (or whatever) to take one of the boats out on the lake; we're planning our first run next Saturday. Hopefully all nearby fishing boats quickly recognize they have an amateur behind the wheel.

On the way home we raced our shadows...AND WON!!!