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!