Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving in Japan has definitely been an experience.  We started off the day like every other with school until 12.  After school Seth said he wanted to go to Tachikawa (a few stations away) to go for a nice lunch as our Thanksgiving meal.  We found a tappanyaki restaurant that looked good.  Not recognizing much on the menu we guessed and hoped it would be good.  We ended up with two types of yakisoba noodles with cabbage and pork which was mostly good, the sauce was a little over powering though.  And then we also ordered what appeared to be a seafood pancake.  On the pictures it was covered in some type of brown sauce and then a white sauce drizzled all over.  When the lady brought the pancake out it only had the brown sauce.  She was carry a bottle of something white, she asked if we wanted the mayonnaise on it as she was turning the bottle over.  Seth, who is completely disgusted by mayonnaise, and me, who knew that about Seth's disgust, both practically shouted NO before she could even finish the sentence. The pancake type dish was okay.  It had cuttlefish, shrimp, and some type of tentacle that we assumed was octopus inside it.  Again the sauce was a little too strong.

After this meal we all agreed that it isn't really a Thanksgiving unless we are all too stuffed to eat.  No one was at that point yet so we decided to go up to the next floor and try another restaurant.  We settled for a dessert waffle place called Mother's Leaf and Tea House.  We ordered 3 different types.  The first was a chocolate waffle with fresh raspberries, raspberry sauce, and a scoop of mango ice cream and raspberry whip cream.  This was by far the best of the three!  The second was a regular waffle with bananas and almond slices and drizzled in chocolate sauce.  It also had a scoop of mango ice cream and whip cream.  Very good.  The third however was more of what we were hoping to avoid haha  It was a regular waffle with a scoop of mango ice cream and whip cream.  But onto of the waffle and scoops was a heap of purple bean paste frosting.  As if that wasn't bad enough, there were also candied sweet potatoes, kidney beans, and some mixture of lentils and beans all on top.  What is it with beans in this place!!

After the waffles we weren't quite feeling ready to go home yet.  While walking around the train station Marley spotted the Krispy Kreme haha

It was definitely a dessert filled Thanksgiving!

Cats

We took Marley to the 8 story toy store he loves this weekend while we waited for our turn at the Skytree.  It has floors upon floors of toys and things for him to play with.  Trains, puzzles, games, wooden blocks, legos, and the list keeps going.  They have one floor of all stuffed animals.  We told Marley to hold one of the cats so we could take a picture.  After the picture was done he said he wanted to take the kitty home because he missed his other cats back in Bellingham.  Kelly looked at the price tag and laughed and then handed it to me.  Marley was hugging a $170 stuffed cat!  Is that a famous cat? Can it make my dinner and do my laundry?

Expensive grey kitty!

Giant Foods

After giving up on day one to the Skytree we decided to stop and grab lunch at nearby Chinese restaurant.  We ordered a few dishes and one was gyoza (pot stickers).  Normally you can get 6 for $3 or 12 for $6.  At this place we noticed that they were 5 for $10.  Widely expensive! But we got them because Marley loves them and needed something to make him happy until we got home.  When the food came we realized why they were so expensive.  They were the huge! Seriously the biggest gyoza I've ever seen, they were the size of hot dogs!

Tokyo Skytree - take 2

We decided Sunday morning that we would attempt yet again to see the Skytree.  Seth decided he would take Marley early and head down there to get tickets and Kelly and I would join a little later.  He left and was at the Skytree before 10:30 and still our ticket time wasn't until 3:30!  So Kelly and I headed down that way and met them at the Kanda station.  We still had 2 hours to kill so we took Marley to the 8 story toy store in town.  Then it was finally time to head to the Skytree. Of course though at this point Marley was tired and cranky so waiting in line was no fun.  But we made it up, 350 meters up! We made it up right at sunset so the view was amazing.  Its unbelievable how big the city is!  It looked like it never ended!  We were lucky because it was a mostly clear day and we were able to see Mount Fuji!

Tokyo Skytree - part 1

We realized this past weekend that I only have a little time left in Japan.  (Exactly two weeks from today!) So we started thinking about what I wanted to do/see before I left.  One thing we wanted to do was go up the Tokyo Skytree Tower and see the city.  It was finished in the spring of 2012 and the main observatory area is 350 meters above sea level.  Kelly and I went to the Tokyo Tower those first few days in Tokyo.  That was cool as well but it was only 150 meters above sea level.

So we set out and headed to downtown Tokyo around 11:00 on Saturday.  It takes probably a good hour to get to Tokyo station.  We stopped here and got some food and went to find the Miffy store.  Kelly really wanted to buy something miffy.  It took us close to 45 minutes to find the store because the shopping area outside the mall has two different buildings, 8 floors each, and hundreds of people! We finally found the miffy store on the character floor which consisted of dozens of shops each dedicated to some type of animated cartoon character.  It was awesome!

We then caught the train to the Skytree.  Walking up to it was insane, it just kept getting bigger!  By the time we got there it was probably about 1 o'clock.  Seth went to go get tickets while Kelly and I walked around with Marley.  He came back a few minutes later with a defeated look on his face.  He then handed me 4 paper cards with the time 19:30-20:00 written on it.  since it was a Saturday there was a huge wait to get in.  They hand out these place holders, you are to return and get in line at your designated time and then wait in line to buy the ticket and then to go up.  It said you can expect to wait between 30-60 minutes of waiting in line after your designated time.  We all looked at Marley and laughed because we knew there was no way he was going to last until 730 just to get in line since his normal bed time is 6. It was so defeating to travel all the way there and yet not be able to do it.

We ended up walking to Asakusa, the next city, and walking around in a shopping area and seeing a temple.  This at least made up for the fail of the attempt before!

This is as close as we got to going up.

These pictures are of the temple at Asakusa 

Meat on a Stick

Saturday there was parent's day at Marley's school to show all of the art work the kids have created.  Marley was finally feeling a little better so Seth decided to take Marley while Kelly and I did some stuff around the house.  We got a text message from him 45 minutes later saying "bring money and bikes to gym, meet in 10".  It turns out there was some sort of Farmers Market going on with little booths and stands set up all around the square.  We bought some fried chicken and jo-jos and ate near the fountain.  That was good but after Marley said he was still hungry.  So we decided to try meat on a stick.  Seth bought two different kinds.  I thought one was chicken and the other was seafood.  The chicken turned out to look like beef when it was cooked.  I had the first bite, definitely not beef!  Seth tried it next and ended up spitting it out, he doesn't have much of a tolerance for new/different things.  What we thought was chicken turned out to be some animals tongue!  We threw that away and went on to the seafood.  It was in little pieces and was white.  It was a little chewy and slimy but wasn't as bad as the tongue.  That was until we realized it wasn't seafood but rather intestines.  The after taste was worse than actually eating the intestines! As soon as we got back to the house we all quickly drank some coke to get rid of that taste!!

You mad bro?

Why would anyone want there face to have a constant look of anger and frustration?  Beats me, but that exactly what this women looked like on the train.  She had removed both eyebrows and instead drew on new ones but in downward lines so her expression never changed haha

Day 3 of House Arrest

That is how Kelly is feeling right about now.  She went outside Wednesday only to meet us at the gates of the college, and then was inside all of yesterday and the majority of today.  You could tell she was beginning to get restless.  Thankfully Marley was feeling much better today than how he was yesterday.  He was tired and sluggish with a slight fever but was in higher spirits and even made it to dinner where we went out for udon at his request.  Of course when we got to the restaurant he looked like he was about to fall asleep and had to be fed the whole meal.  

We had planned to take him to the doctors today but the English speaking office didn't have any openings and the other English speaking offices were over an hour away via train and he wasn't bad enough that they thought it was important.  We will be heading to one of them next week to get Marley a flu shot.  That'll be interesting...

We, Seth, Marley, and I, went out yesterday morning for an hour to try and get Marley some fresh air.  Seth just said that we would go get a pastry but didn't mention where.  Turns out we took 2 trains just to get the the Krispy Kreme he saw earlier in the week haha  At first I thought he was silly to go so far for a doughnut when there were bakeries and a Mr. Doughnut much closer but after the first bite of my doughnut all made sense! haha It is 100 times better than rotten old Mr. Doughnut and best of all there was no bean paste in the whole place! haha

Hard to see in the picture but here is Marley with his swollen lip looking so out of it at Krispy Kreme.  When we finally got there he picked out a chocolate doughnut.  When we sat down he looked like this and felt awful, he looked at the doughnut and said he just wanted water.  That's when we knew it was time to take him back home!

Sick Boy

Last night Marley started to feel a little down in the gutter. He said his belly hurt and his face looked pale and he felt like he had a slight fever.  He went to bed before dinner and slept through the night.  In the morning he felt better but still not great.  We decided to try going to school and see if he could make it through.  I could Marley on the bus to school by myself this morning.  Poor guy, he fell on the sidewalk right outside of the school.  And with his new backpack (which doesnt fit well, it retricts his arms).  So when he fell he couldnt put his hands out to brace himself and landed on his face! He got a nasty bloody/swollen lip.  It was awful! He was fine overall but just added to him already not feeling good.  He didn't want to do anything at school except sit with me and read/rest so we ended up leaving and going home early.  He fell asleep within minutes of being home and resting with Kelly.  He ended up napping all day, woke up once for maybe half an hour and then right back to bed for the night.  He looks so sad with his swollen lip and pale face.
Hopefully he feels better tomorrow morning!

Ready for school

Marley has a hat and a backpack he is supposed to wear on his walk to and from school.  Its adorable! He's still trying to get used to the idea of the hat and backpack but its so cute when he puts them on.  Although whenever he puts the backpack on he instantly leans forward and walks around with his head at his knees haha

November 17th

It's officially past the middle of November.  While at home it is in the mid 40s and has been raining for weeks now, it is a comfortable 60 degrees here and sunny here.  We went to the park today and I enjoyed wearing simply a long sleeve shirt and feeling the sun warming my face.  It is so amazing to have a forecast that says 60 and sunny all week! I am not going to be ready to go home to the cold and rain in a few weeks!!  It feels like early September outside haha

At the park today we finally figured out what these metal bars were for! There are two rows of bars about 20 feet long and about 3 feet wide.  Unicycles! We saw little kids practicing all day!  

Dinosaurs, City Lights, and Saké

Yesterday we made our way our way back to Ueno where we went to the zoo a few weeks ago.  They have a dinosaur exhibit going on at the Natural Science Museum.  We decided before we went to the museum it would be a good idea to go to a park 2 train stations away so Marley could run out his wiggles from the long train ride.  Seth was the one who had found the park online the night before so Kelly assumed he knew how to get there.  Wrong!  We get off the park and she asks Seth where to go from here.  He just looks and says "I don't know, should be around here somewhere." We ended walking for almost 45 minutes, asking two people for help, and looking at Kelly's GPS on her phone before we found the park.  We were always a little cranky, tired, and hungry by the time we got to the park.

Saw a blimp while at the park!  It was of course a Japanese Snoopy for MetLife haha

After the park we found a place to eat.  From the outside it looked like the International House of Gyoza

It was then two train stations to get to the Dinosaur exhibit.  The exhibit was of dinosaurs found in Mongolia.  By this time Marley was exhausted and had no interest in seeing old dinosaur bones.  It took some convincing to get him to look around but by the end he enjoyed at least a little.

Since it was a nice night and we were already downtown we decided to stop at Shinjuku.  It is the busiest train station in the world.  Outside of the station is streets and streets of shops, restaurants, and giant lights.  We all wanted to get a sense of the night life before I left.  It actually took us almost 15 minutes from the time we got off the train to actually step foot outside the station.  Thats how big the station is and how far we had to walk.  Once we were outside it was fun to see the different stores and people.  It was late for us, 6pm, but you could tell things were just getting started in Shinjuku.  We finally found a restaurant that didnt have smoking and ordered.  I really wanted to try saké before I left so this was the night.  The food was delicious, we had chicken and some kind of spicy pork with a salad, rice, and soup.  Everything tasted excellent! Except for something brown in the soup.  I said it looked like a soaked shredded wheat cereal piece, Kelly thought it was beef tongue (that was popular on their menu), while Seth said it looked like a beaver's ear.  After each trying it we decided it was most likely tongue.

The saké was good, it was a chilled kind.  Surprisingly it reminded me of vodka but beer at the same time.  But that was a huge bottle! Seth ordered a drink for himself and wine for Kelly so this was all for me!  I could only do a few of those small glasses before I was starting to warm up and as Kelly said I was getting the "permi-smile" haha  The remainder is now in the fridge here at the house...

Kabuki Theater

Seth was invited to a Kabuki play by the professors at Kyoritsu.  He was told they were VIP seats next to the Greek and Iranian Ambassadors.  A few days before the play they contacted Seth and said they had extra seats they needed to fill and could he help.  He said that he could take one more ticket and either Kelly or I would join him.  The play started at 430 in downtown Tokyo and was supposed to go until late so Kelly wasn't able to go because of Marley.  So I got to go!  I was extremely excited because it is a traditional Japanese play that I will likely never get a chance to see again.

So Seth and I left at 2 o'clock to head to the city where we would meet a professor halfway to take us.  We ended up being at the wrong entrance to the Marinochi line and not being able to find her. Thankfully someone on the street helped us find the right entrance.  While on one of the trains, particularly crowded, two girls came on and stood next to where I was sitting.  One was hold a clear dixie cup with a red liquid inside, it looked like Kool-Aid.  But it was definitely NOT juice.  I could instantly tell by the way they were talking and the way the cup was swishing about that it was more the juice.  She came so close to spilling her drink on my grey skirt multiple times and  just kept holding my breathe!  Thankfully she got off after only a few stops and I was still Kool-Aid free.

The seats we had were amazing.  We were in the first row of the balcony level.  We were each given an earpiece that was our translator.  Unfortunately the device did more of general overview/summary of what was being said instead of each persons line.  It also was a few seconds fast so we knew what was going to happen before it did.

The first act was 2 hours! Then a thirty minute intermission where we were given a bento box for dinner, then act two which was 1  1/2 hours! Then a ten minutes break before act three of 30 minutes.  The play started at 430 and we didn't leave until after 9pm!  We were exhausted!  The play was okay but slow!  Apparently Kabuki is known for being of slow nature.  The whole play could have probably been performed in 2 hours and been exactly the same.  I counted over 10 people who had fallen asleep, several of which fell asleep multiple times!

The Greek Ambassador and his wife sat behind us.  We were surprised how unhappy they seemed to be about being there.  Both fell asleep, his cell phone rang several times, and they left after act one.  Next to us turned out to be two Irish Fullbright professors (like Seth).  The one closest to me feel asleep on 4 different occasions haha

It was at the 10 minute intermission we realized the gates at Tsuda College close at 11pm and there is no admittance after that.  It was coming to 830 at this point and we had at least a 2 hour commute back to Tsuda.   We high-tailed it out of the theater as soon as the curtain closed and thankfully made all the trains we wanted and were back at the gates by 10:45!

Train station below the theater